Foreknowledge
by Tristan Palmgren
Summary: The universe itself is arrayed against Maximillion Acorn's futile quest to save his daughter's life. Set in the SatAM universe.
1. To Love and Lose

All Sonic the Hedgehog characters and situations are (c) the Sega Corporation, DiC   
Productions, and Archie Comics. Based heavily off of situations written for DiC by Ben   
Hurst in the episode "The Void", and by Len Janson in the episode "Sonic Boom", so   
some familiarity with those episodes will help the reader. Questions and comments are   
more than welcome, so send them to charpalm@mediaone.net  
  
Rated PG for language and a short scene with very graphic violence.  
  
Foreknowledge  
  
A Sonic the Hedgehog story by Tristan Palmgren   
  
---  
  
Chapter 1: To Love and Lose   
  
---  
  
Timeline: From the King's perspective, two years have passed since his banishment into   
the Void.  
  
---  
  
The scratching of a pen's tip, scribbling facts and figures on a thick piece of worn   
parchment, was the only noise in that echoed off the distant walls and numerous crystalline   
stalactites of the castle's throne room.  
  
King Maximillion Acorn, heir to the Mobotropolis Royal Crown and exile, stifled   
the noise of even his own breathing. He had long ago learned that he preferred the Void's   
silence to sound. Sound was a distraction, dragging him out of his work and back into   
reality. Any time he so much as looked upon his surroundings, all he could think of was   
that he wanted to shed them like a reptile would a crinkled and dirty skin, and be cleansed   
of it forever. The crystal rocks poking haphazardly from the floors and walls, the angles   
of the skewed yet surreally familiar doors and hallways, all would remind him of what a   
disgusting mockery this castle was.  
  
Silence let him submerge into the task; submergence let him forget.  
  
His work gradually consumed the parchment's available space. With mild   
annoyance, he flipped the sheet over and began working in a clean space. He rarely set   
the pen down, or even took it away from the sheet, but when he did, his eyes always   
drifted over to a sketch drawn in the margins of the page. It was rough, and not   
professionally detailed, but the basic shape alone was discernible. It was a large circle,   
inset with other smaller circles: the portal to the Void. A single word was scrawled next   
to it, deeply enough to leave a dimpling on the thick parchment. It read "Escape".  
  
The scraping sound of an old, wooden door opening shattered the silence. King   
Acorn took his eyes away from his work, peering upwards.  
  
"How goes our work today, my aged apprentice?" a rasping voice inquired.   
Footsteps echoed across the cavernous throne room as the figure drew closer to the   
workbench.  
  
King Acorn grimaced. Over the past two years, he had come to hate that voice   
with a bitter intensity that he had only felt for one other person in his life. He reluctantly   
set the pen down on the parchment, positioned so that it carefully hid the sketch of the   
Void, and turned his chair to face the newcomer.  
  
"Not very well, I'm afraid," the King replied, looking his 'master' straight in the   
eye. "As seems usual with a case like this. I'm still afraid that there really is no way out   
of the Void, beyond being dragged out from the outside."  
  
"I expected as much from you," Ixis Naugus replied icily. He stepped closer,   
laying his hand down on the King's workbench. His hand idly flicked the pen aside, and   
regarded the drawing with a raised eyebrow.  
  
Max Acorn held his breath, feeling like a child for fearing Naugus so.  
  
Thankfully, Naugus only viewed it with an air of chilly disinterest. "Becoming an   
artist in our old age, Max?"  
  
"It seems the only way to pass time while trapped here, master," Max reluctantly   
responded, secretly thinking to himself that Naugus was in no position to make jabs at his   
age.  
  
"No matter. I've come here because I wanted to show you something," Naugus   
said, stepping over to one of the false throne room's blank walls. "Come," he beckoned.  
  
Max stood up, following a few steps behind the bearded wizard. His boots   
clacked across the stone floorings louder than Naugus's footsteps.  
  
"You resent being taken away from your work," Naugus said matter-of-factly, as if   
he could read the King's mind. "But I've made some discoveries you'll be interested in.   
With the surveillance device we built."  
  
Max nodded quietly. He and Naugus had built the machine over a month ago; the   
work that went into its construction was the only thing the King had to be proud of for the   
past two years. It allowed a person trained in its use to view events in the real world as   
they were happening, by opening a microscopically small fissure in the air, an invisibly   
small portal that would lead to the Void. Although nothing from inside the Void could   
escape, light and sound heading inward could be captured. The micro-fissure was capable   
of being opened anywhere in the world, from Robotnik's most secure laboratories to the   
ocean floor. It was the ultimate scrying device, but Naugus had forbidden him to use it.  
  
"How well do you remember your daughter, Sire?"   
  
Max stopped dead in his tracks, unsure of what to do. Showing any signs of   
weakness would usually only invite more of the sorcerer's abuse; right now, though, he   
felt nothing but weak.  
  
Memories flashed before him, images as vivid as if they were happening right now.   
He remembered the first time he had ever seen her as an infant, fur still damp, coiled up in   
her new mother's arms. He saw the smile that had lit up her face when he dropped her off   
at Rosie's, the morning before the coup. It had been the last time he had seen her. He   
could never forget that smile.  
  
"That well, eh?" Naugus chuckled. "Do you wish to see what has become of her   
in your absence?"  
  
The King felt his lips move almost automatically, answering before he had a chance   
to even think. "More than anything in the world."  
  
Naugus raised a flattened palm the air. Max stepped backward involuntarily,   
cursing his servile fright. He had thought for a moment that Naugus was going to strike   
him, but the palm remained steady.  
  
**I was never like this before**, the King thought sourly, **I had willpower. I   
was a leader, not a servant.**  
  
A heavy, bass thud reverberated throughout the throne room. Max fought back   
his instinct to flinch. When he glanced back at Naugus, he saw that the floor in front of   
the empty wall had shot upwards, crumbling the rock around it. A large, flat video   
monitor almost half the size of the throne room had risen from the ground. Naugus   
lowered his hand, nodding in satisfaction.  
  
That was the trouble with interacting with Naugus. The old wizard didn't look   
like much of a foe. His long, bleached white beard and the horn growing out of the middle   
of his forehead only lent him the ludicrous appearance of an insane beggar. Yet, a single   
motion in his fingertips could split the earth and change the world...  
  
The monitor crackled to life, spitting out static and then the haunting howl of the   
Void. Somewhere in the real world, Max knew, a micro-fissure was opening. The image   
cleared up slowly, wavering for several moments before finally becoming steady. Colors   
gradually resolved themselves from the gloom, but there still wasn't much to see.  
  
This wasn't from any fault of the camera itself, but instead just from the general   
lack of light from the real world. The micro-fissure had opened indoors, in a corridor   
glowing only with the dim red color of low-power light bulbs.  
  
"Where is this?"  
  
Naugus's face twisted into a sneer. "This is your glorious capital city. It's been...   
redecorated by that low life, War Minister Julian."  
  
More memories flooded back to the King, none of them pleasant. Years-old anger   
stirred within him -- Julian was the only person that he hated more than Naugus.  
  
He heard footsteps slap down against the metal floors. Echoes made it difficult to   
say exactly how many people were making the noise. Within seconds, three figures ran   
into view from below the micro-fissure, and stopped below one of the muted red bulbs.   
Soft light played across their features.  
  
Two of them he didn't recognize, but his jaw dropped when he saw the third. It   
was his daughter, Sally Acorn, but she had changed in a way that Max had never   
expected. She had grown.  
  
The face on the monitor was definitely the sleek, regal face of the Acorn heir, but   
over a decade of growth had worked their way into her features. She was taller, much   
taller, and possessed the budding body of a young adult female. The King pegged her age   
at around sixteen or seventeen years of age.  
  
The biggest change, though, was the eyes. Not a spark of innocence was left.  
"That's im-impossible!" Max stuttered, feeling his heart sinking. **I've lost eleven   
years out of my daughter's life. ** "I've only been trapped in the Void for two years!   
She was five when I left!" **My daughter's grown eleven years without her father. **  
  
**Eleven years. **   
  
"She couldn't have grown that much in only two years. There hasn't been enough   
time!"  
  
Naugus threw him a disgusted glance. "Time? Have you forgotten where you are,   
lackey? Time is something that happens to other people."  
  
The King snapped his muzzle shut, and watched.  
  
---  
  
"'Twan? C'mon, Sal, the hedgehog can do this by himself."  
  
"No, Sonic, there are too many guards!" the Princess protested.  
  
"And you think that, of all people, Antoine can help me?"  
  
"Zat is zee plan, you fuel!"  
  
The heavily accented fox planted his hands on his hips, staring crossly at the   
hedgehog, trying to look as menacing as possible. He didn't pull it off. The blue-quilled   
hedgehog's eyes rolled upwards, and he shook his head.  
  
King Acorn narrowed his eyes, examining the fox. He was dressed in the garb of   
the Royal Guard: his daughter's bodyguard, perhaps? The guard thrust an angry thumb at   
his chest. The metal buttons on his uniform's shoulder glinted in the poor light. "I'll have   
you knowing zat I am being much too very brave an' strong for zose miserable SWATbots."  
  
The hedgehog, Sonic, cast a wry glance at Sally. "Is he full of himself, or what?"  
  
"His ego's smaller than yours," Sally snapped back. She took a deep breath, and   
shook her head. "Sonic, now is not the time to change the plan! We agreed on this last   
night: you and Antoine distract the armory's guards, while I sneak in and plant the   
explosives. If you had problems with it, you should've brought it up then!"  
  
Sonic merely shrugged. "I just know that 'Twan's gonna mess it up, just like he   
always does."  
  
"Use your head! There are too many SWATbots for you to take on alone."  
  
"Talk about your oxymorons. There's never too many. Later!"  
  
The hedgehog's legs whirled around in a circle, revving up like a motor. His   
sneakers appeared to not so much as speed up as opposed to *blur*. A high-pitched   
whine that the King had only heard once before screamed through the air.  
  
Sally grabbed the hedgehog by the shoulder before he could take off, a resigned   
expression on her face. "Just... be careful, okay?"  
  
"As always, Sal."  
  
She leaned forward, planted a quick peck on his cheek, and let go. The hedgehog   
took off.  
  
---  
  
Max turned to Ixis Naugus. "What's become of my daughter's life? That one was   
Sir Charles's nephew, I know. But what of the other? And what were they doing?"  
  
"Questions, questions," Naugus sighed. "You should recognize the other. He's   
the son of one of your former advisors."  
  
Naugus didn't need to finish, as long-forgotten memories filled in the pieces of the   
puzzle. "General Francois D'Coolette," the King said. He hadn't thought of the stern old   
man in quite some time; now his son was apparently an important fixture in the Princess's   
life. So much could happen in a decade.  
  
"I've only been watching them for a few days, so I'm not entirely sure," Naugus   
confessed, "But they seem to be part of a roguish band of Freedom Fighters out to destroy   
dear old Julian. Your daughter is their leader, apparently."  
  
King Acorn's gaze fell back to the monitor, and to his daughter. Although much   
time had passed, she was still only a child in her mid-teens. Leading a group of Freedom   
Fighters?  
  
Max remembered himself at that age – the responsibility of being heir to the throne   
weighed heavily upon him. He'd had to feel and act old even as a teenager. The same   
thing must be happening to Sally, only her dire situation must be magnifying the   
phenomenon a hundredfold.  
  
Naugus continued speaking, occasionally gesturing at the screen. "Right now,   
they're trying to bomb one of Julian's armories. The hedgehog will try and distract the   
metal men standing guard outside, while the Princess and her bodyguard are supposed   
sneak in and plant several explosives." A smile twitched at the corners of the wizard's   
lips. "Unfortunately, that won't happen."  
  
"You've seen this before, then?" the King asked. "You know what will happen?"  
  
"Oh, yes." The smile grew wider. "That's why I wanted to show it to you." He   
snapped his fingers, and the camera view changed.  
  
Max suddenly had a very sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He turned back   
towards the monitor.  
  
---  
  
The corridor had apparently widened out into a larger, box-like room. A set of   
double-doors consumed most of one of the walls. Two of the city's robotic police force,   
Julian had called them SWATbots, the King recalled, stood motionlessly on both sides of   
the doors. Red light glistened off their helmet's amber visors.  
  
There was a flash of blue, and suddenly the hedgehog was standing between them.   
A chuckle echoed through the room, and then he was gone again. A trail of dust marked   
his passage through one of the side corridors.  
  
The two guards didn't hesitate to give chase. In unison, they both raised their   
arms, leveling them at the retreating hedgehog. Bursts of crackling blue energy erupted   
from their wrists, slamming into the walls nearby the Freedom Fighter. Metal split and   
crumbled, shooting sparks in every cardinal direction.  
  
The King winced. The city's police force hadn't been equipped with laser cannons   
anywhere near as powerful as what he had just seen. Julian must have retrofitted the   
Peacebots with them after the exile into the Void.  
  
"Priority One Hedgehog – Freeze!"  
  
Sonic dashed around a corner, and out of the guards' line of fire. One of the   
robots continued to pursue him. The other stopped dead in its tracks.  
  
Max heard Naugus's chuckle. "The Freedom Fighters hadn't planned for this   
scenario."  
  
The SWATbot reached down to its left wrist, expertly punching a number of   
buttons in rapid succession. It held the wrist to its face. Judging by the layout of the   
buttons and the appearance of a small, meshed speaker, the King guessed that it was a   
communication device of some sort.  
  
"Alert, Warehouse 6-G," the SWATbot ordered. "Flank the building. Seal off all   
entrance and exit points."  
  
The SWATbot turned on its heel, and marched back over to the armory door.  
  
"What's happening, Naugus?" the King asked.  
  
"Julian apparently got tired of the Freedom Fighters outwitting legion after legion   
of SWATbots," Naugus's voice dropped to a hiss at the mention of Julian. "So he   
upgraded their AI programs to more effectively deal with diversionary tactics. It... catches   
your daughter by surprise, I'm afraid."  
  
As if to prove Naugus's point, two pairs of footsteps began echoing down the   
corridor drew the remaining guard's attention. The camera angle rotated slightly, just in   
time for the King to see his daughter and the uniformed fox run around the corner. They   
skidded to a halt almost immediately.  
  
"Soneec did not distract zee guards! Zat stupeed hedgehog! He failed!" Antoine   
groaned under his breath.  
  
The SWATbot began to raise its laser-augmented wrist. It wasn't even going to   
give them a warning.  
  
"Antoine, duck!"  
  
The Freedom Fighters tried to jump back behind the corner. Antoine wasn't fast   
enough. The SWATbot's wrist glowed, and spat laser at the fox's chest. Even the King,   
from his distant vantage point, could tell that there wasn't enough time to dodge. The fox   
hastily cast up his right arm to deflect the blast.  
  
Throwing up his arm at the last minute saved Antoine's life, but the damage to the   
fox's body was severe. The laser burned through his arm's fur and flesh, searing and   
melting both, before finally being absorbed by his forearm's bone. His uniform's sleeve   
burst into flames.  
  
Antoine screamed with a pain he had never known before.  
  
Sally grabbed Antoine by the neck, and dragged him back around the corner. Her   
shocked eyes quickly surveyed the wound, and, in a single motion, ripped the sleeve of his   
uniform off his shoulder, and flung the still-burning fabric onto the floor.  
  
Smoke licked upwards from *inside* the wound. The laser's energy had not only   
charred and cauterized the flesh, but the bone as well.  
  
Antoine's eyes and mouth were clenched tightly shut. He held a trembling left   
hand over the wound, trying to contain some of the smoke as if it were blood. His jaw   
wavered.  
  
"Oh, no," was about all Sally could manage. Empathy stronger than anything the   
King had ever felt surged in her eyes.  
  
"P-Princess," Antoine stuttered, jaw still trembling treacherously. "I cannot move   
my hand, Princess."  
  
The fox's right hand hung limp. There had obviously been some damage to his   
nervous system.  
  
"I don't know if-" Sally was interrupted. The SWATbot's metal boots were   
echoing up the corridor, getting closer. It was running towards them. Without thinking,   
she grabbed Antoine's good arm and began running. The fox was able to keep pace, but   
just barely. "Come on!"  
  
---  
  
"Naugus," the King started, and then thought better of it. "Master, I implore you.   
Tell me what happens to my daughter!"  
  
"See for yourself." The wizard's bony fingers snapped, and the camera view   
changed once more.  
  
---  
  
It was another dimly lit amber red corridor, nearly identical to the others that the   
King had seen, except that this one was somewhat lengthier. Both ends of the corridor   
stretched far off into the distance. There were no doors or markings anywhere, only   
uniform gunmetal gray walls. The complex the Freedom Fighters had infiltrated was   
obviously very large; that gave Max a modicum of hope. It would be easy for them to   
stay hidden in such a vast, empty facility.  
  
Sally and the wounded fox were running down its length, hardly stopping for   
breath. The fox was still nursing his wounded arm, although thankfully no more smoke   
was emerging from the wound. Occasionally, he would drip of small blotch of blood red   
on the ground beneath him, but the laser's searing heat had cauterized most of the gash,   
sealing the arteries. Whimpers recurrently issued from his throat.  
  
Sally glanced behind her. "I think we lost it." But they didn't stop running.  
  
The high-pitched whine the King had come to recognize as the hedgehog's   
speeding legs grew louder, and a streak of dust rounded the corner up ahead. It slowed as   
it approached Sally, and the burred streak of blue became recognizable as Sonic.  
  
"Yo, Sal, did you-" the hedgehog cut himself off when he saw Antoine. "What the   
hell? What happened?"  
  
The fox only whimpered, jaw trembling. He cupped his good hand protectively   
over the injury.  
  
"There was a guard still at the door," Sally said hastily. "He shot Antoine."  
  
"Still there? But I thought I had both of them running after me!" Sonic scratched   
his head, his eyes wide open in alarm.  
  
"Doesn't matter now," Sally said. "We need to get him back to Knothole. Maybe   
Booksh-"  
  
"Priority One Hedgehog," a security bot's voice rumbled from the end of the   
corridor. The three Freedom Fighters spun instantly around, facing it's raised forearm.   
The laser-augmented wrist glowed menacingly in the poor light.  
  
"It's a trap!" Sally's whisper got caught in her throat.  
  
Sonic raised his clenched fists. "It's okay, I'll get us out of this-"  
  
The SWATbot spoke once more, interrupting the hedgehog. King Acorn felt a   
shiver ripple down his spine. His jaw ached from being clenched shut for so long. "New   
orders – shoot to kill."  
  
Without further warning, a laser bolt screamed down the hallway and slamming   
into Antoine's throat. The fox flew backwards, smashing bodily against the far wall. A   
spray of blood glimmered against the ceiling, in stark contrast to the cold gray metal. He   
slumped to the floor, and didn't move again.  
  
The hedgehog gasped, and tried to rev up his legs and escape. Sally only had time   
to whisper something unintelligible before the SWATbot fired again.  
  
One shot caught the hedgehog's leg. He fell to his knees, too shocked from pain   
to try and move. The next laser hit him squarely in the center of the chest, throwing his   
body backwards to finally fall, belly up, on the floor. The laser had instantly burned   
through the outer layer of flesh and had smashed through his ribcage with sheer, brute   
force. His internal organs had been instantly cooked by the scorching heat.  
  
Sally involuntarily stepped backwards, hands almost covering her wide-open   
mouth. She looked like she was screaming, but could force no sound to emerge from her   
lips.  
  
"No," the King cried. A tear rolled down his cheek. "Naugus, make it stop!"  
  
"That is beyond my power, Max," Naugus cackled, almost gleefully. He was   
enjoying this. "We cannot escape the Void. This is all happening in the real world."  
  
Sally couldn't take her eyes of the corpse of the hedgehog. Her breathing came   
out suddenly, in slow, muffled gasps. She looked as if she were too afraid to say anything,   
as if taking any action whatsoever would prove that this was reality, and not simply the   
terrifying escape of nightmare.  
  
She tore her gaze away from the gruesome remains of her only love, and towards   
the robot still standing at the end of the hallway. Its wrist glowed with unspent laser   
energy.  
  
"Priority One Target eliminated. Priority Two: Princess Acorn. Surrender or   
die."  
  
Sally stood shock still in the corridor. Everything was horribly quiet.  
  
"Surrender or die," the SWATbot repeated.  
  
A whisper, too soft to be heard by the SWATbot, escaped Sally's throat. "Kill   
me."  
  
The King had been biting his lip, and only noticed it now when blood started   
trickling into his mouth. He couldn't even feel the pain from the cut.  
  
"This is your last warning."  
  
Sally's fist curled up into a ball. She tried to speak again, but her voice choked up.   
The SWATbot didn't acknowledge it. Instead, its wrist began to glow brighter as it once   
more prepared to discharge a laser burst.  
  
A gloved metal hand swept down from around the corner and knocked the   
SWATbot's arm to the side. The laser beam exploded harmlessly against a wall. The   
Princess didn't even flinch.  
  
"No, no," a deep voice chuckled ominously, "we can't let her get off that easy, can   
we?"  
  
The King's face twisted into a snarl. "Julian."  
  
The SWATbot obediently lowered its arm as Ivo Robotnik stepped into the light.   
More robotic guards had appeared behind him, as well as a shorter, frailer human with a   
ridiculously bird-like nose. Robotnik's red eyes gleamed with a red light all their own as   
they surveyed the carnage.  
  
"The hedgehog is dead... it just makes me feel warm, and alive, for the first time in   
years. I feel... hungry for more. Wouldn't you agree, Snively?"  
  
"Yes, sir," the bird-nosed human said, mouth curled in disgust as he looked at the   
remains of the Freedom Fighters.  
  
"Dig up and clean out some of the old stoves from King Acorn's royal kitchen.   
And have the SWATbots take the hedgehog's remains there."  
  
"But that's just-"  
  
"This is one meal that I'm really going to enjoy."  
  
Resignation overtook revulsion on the smaller human's face. "Yes, sir."  
  
Robotnik's forefinger and thumb squeezed a lump of flab on his arm. "Oh, pinch   
me, I must be dreaming. Sally Acorn is also in my grasp." A wide grin split his face.   
"Tell me, Princess, how does it feel?"  
  
Sally's expression went blank. Without another word, she simply turned around   
and began running towards the opposite end of the corridor.  
  
Robotnik sighed, and took a step to the side to give the SWATbots a clearer view.   
"You," he jabbed his thumb towards the nearest guard, "shoot her in the leg."  
  
Sally didn't cry out, didn't even utter a single whisper, as the laser beam cut her   
down. She stumbled to the floor, incapacitated, with blood oozing from a new wound in   
her calf.  
  
"Retooling the SWATbot AI was a marvelous idea, Snively. Simply ingenious."  
"Oh… thank you, sir."  
  
Julian's boots echoed down the corridor as he moved towards Sally's fallen form.   
"One more order, Snively."  
  
"Go ahead, sir."  
  
"Warm up the roboticizer."  
  
---  
  
The video screen flickered in response to Naugus's command, and the scene   
changed. Some time had passed, but the King couldn't tell how much. Sally imprisoned   
in a clear glass tube in the center of a large, cavernous room, leaning against the wall for   
support. From the camera's angle, Max could just barely see the charred and singed fur   
around the wound in her leg.  
  
"Well, Princess, you and I both knew that it would only be a matter of time,"   
Julian grinned. "After all, you and your friends have taken so many risks in your attacks   
on my city. It was only a matter of time before the dice rolled my way, for once." The   
obese man tweaked his flaring orange mustache. "A shame you and your friends are   
finished thanks to that rather stupid coincidence. I would have preferred it if your demise   
was more dramatic."  
  
The frail human looked down, occasionally tapping a few buttons on a computer   
console. "Therite field at maximum. Ready to roboticize."  
  
Sally's hands pounded against her glass cage. The tube muted out all sound, but   
her eyes were wide open in the universal human expression of fear.  
  
"Activate."  
  
Electric blue flashes of lightning arced down from the ceiling of the glass tube,   
tearing across the Princess's body. Her toes seemed to... mesh together, and reform into   
one solid block of metal. The effect swept up her legs, changing warm fur and flesh into   
cooling gray steel. Her wound disappeared under a sheath of metal.  
  
The King rushed forward, pounding his fists against the titanic video monitor. He   
heard someone shout, and recognized his own voice. What hurt the most was the fact that   
there was nothing he could do. Not even his helpless cries of protest would carry over   
into the other world.  
  
Julian's grin grew wider. "Goodbye, Princess. It's been fun."  
  
Sally's fists clenched, fingers fusing into one solid chunk of metal. Her arms   
straightened as the bone itself was chemically twisted into a solid metal rod. Her   
midsection was flattened, the electricity burned up to her shoulders. A blood-curdling   
scream managed to break free of the otherwise soundproofed roboticizer. Sally's face   
actually bent, changed its shape. Her blue eyes clenched shut.  
  
When they opened again, they were a solid mechanical red.  
  
King Acorn sunk to his knees, mouth agape.  
  
"100 percent roboticization factor, sir," Snively reported, fingers playing across   
the computer console. The glass door popped open, and the robot emerged from the tube.  
  
Robotnik walked over to it, rapping the robot's head gently. It didn't react.  
"You can still hear me, can't you, Princess? Your mind is still trapped in there.   
Helpless. But capable of seeing, and hearing, and feeling. I can only imagine how   
torturous that must be. Oh, this is too good... Worker bot, your first duty is to go to the   
castle kitchen and to assist in preparing the feast."  
  
"Yes," Sally droned.  
  
"Afterwards... hmmm... we'll put you on sewer patrol. How does that sound?"  
  
"Orders acknowledged."  
  
"Make sure that you enjoy yourself, Princess. Remember, I like my meat rare."  
  
Naugus's bony fingers snapped. The video screen blurred, and finally faded into   
nothingness.  
  
---  
  
For a moment, there was no sound in the false castle's throne room. Then a   
hissing noise, like two weathered bricks scraping against one another, became audible, and   
began to grow louder.  
  
It was Naugus, laughing.  
  
"That was too much," Naugus rasped, still chuckling, "I enjoyed that, and I'm   
enjoying your reaction even more. I've seen that scene before, but this time had to be the   
most fun."  
  
"That... that wasn't real. It couldn't be."  
  
"I'm afraid it was real. And it took place eleven years, four months, and thirteen   
days after you were exiled from your kingdom."  
  
King Acorn held a hand out to the blank screen, brushing his fingers across it.   
"Sally... nothing deserves to die like that."  
  
"But she didn't die," Naugus corrected. "Julian transmuted her flesh to metal."  
"Worse than death," the King mumbled. His vision blurred as his eyes teared over   
again. "Please, Naugus, there must be something we can do to stop that!"  
  
"It's already happened, Max. It's history." Naugus grating laugh echoed across   
the throne room again. He held up his palm, and the blank video monitor fell back into the   
floor. The King watched it recede into the rock. "And besides, I don't wish to save those   
rodents."  
  
"You said it yourself, Naug-" Max stopped himself. "Master. We're in the Void.   
Time is something that happens to other people. There must be something we can do to   
stop this! There has to be!"  
  
Naugus's tone darkened. "You little fool. You think I showed you that out of any   
sort of pity?"  
  
"Then why-"  
  
"I showed it to you to have a little fun. You're becoming surprisingly   
insubordinate of late, Max. You seem to think that there's something waiting for you out   
there, in the real world, if only you can escape."  
  
King Acorn felt himself tremble involuntarily. An emotion, something that the   
King had never experienced before, began to well up within him, and drown out even his   
sorrow. Whatever this new emotion was, it was primal.  
  
"I wanted to demonstrate to you how completely and utterly inept your futile   
dreams are. There is nothing out there waiting for you, Max. Even your daughter lies   
among the dead. There is no reason left to be alive, other than to be MY servant. Is that   
clear?"  
  
A rage the like of which the King had never felt before took over. There would be   
time for mourning later. Now it was the time for anger. His fists clenched. "You... you   
showed me my daughter's death... just to torment me?"  
  
"Your life from before the Void is over, Max. I want you to recognize that only   
servitude, to me, sustains your existence now."  
  
Naugus's eyes burned.  
  
"Do you understand me? There is nothing left for you to live for out there.   
Nothing but me."  
  
"NEVER!" His shout pierced the air, shocking even himself. Naugus took an   
instinctive step backwards; Max's trained eye recognized it as a show of weakness. The   
King rushed towards Ixis Naugus, fists balled up as weapons.  
  
He didn't make more than two steps.  
  
The sorcerer leveled his index finger at the King like it was a weapon. Green fire   
spewed from the rock itself, singing Max's fur and knocking him off his feet into a jarring   
impact with the floor. The blow knocked the wind out of him, and for a moment he   
wasn't able to focus his eyes.  
  
"Never attack a wizard. I thought that you'd learned that the first day you came   
here."  
  
The world came sharply into focus suddenly. Naugus was standing over the   
King's prone body. With a snap of the sorcerer's fingers, invisible hands grabbed Max by   
the shoulders of his military uniform and lifted him high off the ground.  
  
"Pray you never make a mistake like that again, Max." Naugus snarled. "Have   
you learned the lesson I wanted you to, hm? Tell me, what is your reason for living now?"  
  
The King struggled against the unseen arms suspending him in the air, but was   
allowed no quarter. "To see my daughter again," he choked.  
  
Searing, terrifying acute pain shot through his body for the longest time. Even   
though it couldn't have been more than three minutes, it felt like an hour.  
  
"Wrong answer. Why do you live?" Naugus asked again, calmly.  
  
"Sally," the King gasped.  
  
The pain lasted longer this time. When it was over, the King's breath came out in   
long, drawn-out weeps.  
  
"Why do you live?"  
  
Nothing mattered now except the pain. The King felt something in his soul snap.   
There was no choice but to submit. "To serve you, Master Naugus," he sobbed.  
  
"Very good. Is there anything left out there, in the real world, waiting for you?"  
  
"No, master!"  
  
"Do you wish to escape to see your daughter, Princess Sally Acorn?"  
  
The King's head hung, and he paused for several breaths. "No, Naugus."  
  
Max felt the arms release him, and he fell quite some distance to the floor. He   
almost didn't feel the impact. The pain had numbed him to almost all sensation but itself.  
  
"Remember it always. I was hoping this lesson wouldn't need to be as... messy.   
You disappoint me."  
  
Without another word, Naugus left the throne room. The King waited until he   
was sure that Naugus was gone, and then sunk to the ground. He didn't even feel himself   
sobbing, or notice the tears beading together on the floor.  
  
---  
  
Max Acorn wasn't sure how long he had lain there; it was as if no time at all had   
passed, and yet the world itself had leapt a century into the future. In the Void, he knew,   
this was half-true.  
  
That thought clung to the King's mind as he dragged himself across the false   
throne room, and to his old workbench. He landed in the chair heavily, and with a single   
heave, threw the book of worn parchment aside. It landed with a clatter somewhere   
outside the field of his vision.  
  
"You old fool," Max muttered under his breath. He wasn't sure whom he was   
talking about: himself, or Naugus.  
  
Naugus certainly wasn't the most astute judge of human nature. It was clear that   
he had been angling to coerce Max into more work. Now, the last thing on his mind was   
doing anything that that... creature demanded.  
  
But Naugus was right. There was nothing left to live for, now. He had barely   
managed to sustain his existence on hope for two years. The hope that someday he would   
break free of the Void and be reunited with his family, and reclaim the kingdom and the   
life that were stolen from him. Whenever hope had failed he would bury himself in his   
scientific studies, and numb the pain that way.  
  
Now he couldn't bring himself to either hope or work.   
  
He reflected on Sally's last few moments as an organic being, standing shaken and   
traumatized over the bodies of the other Freedom Fighters. He had only come to know   
the others in their last few moments of life, but from what he had seen, the King knew that   
they most have been very important to his daughter, especially the hedgehog. Was what   
he was feeling right now the very thing that had flashed through his daughter's mind   
standing in the corridor?  
  
With them gone, did she too feel nothing left to live for?  
  
In his mind's eye, the King saw himself standing in the very same corridor,   
kneeling over his daughter's slain body. A SWATbot stood leveling its laser-augmented   
wrist at his forehead.  
  
Nothing and nobody left to live for.  
  
Max's whisper echoed his daughter's last words. "Kill me."  
  
Footsteps once more echoed across the rocky floor of the false throne room.   
  
These weren't the heavy sounds of Naugus's strong, imperious strides, but a pair of feet   
that moved with practiced stealth. This was the third occupant of the Void, a person that   
Naugus had yet to discover. He was well hidden.  
  
The King ignored the irritating grating of wood against stone as he turned his chair   
around. "Ari. Did you-"  
  
The ram stopped in the middle of the room, as if afraid to approach any further.   
"No, I didn't know that would happen. I left that world before then. But... I did know   
your daughter as she appeared on that screen. As a Freedom Fighter, and not a child."  
  
"You knew that a decade of my daughter's life had gone by? Then why didn't you   
tell me?"  
  
"Would you have accepted it if I had?"  
  
Max held a hand to his eye, pretending to rub it clear but discreetly wiping away   
the formation of a tear. He shook his head. "No, no, I suppose I wouldn't have. To   
think that you have known my daughter, as an adult, even though you only arrived here   
three months ago? To me, it's only been two years since Mobotropolis fell. And for   
you..."  
  
"...over a decade."  
  
"I would been almost insensate, unable to concentrate on anything else."  
  
Ari stepped forward again. Ever since he had been thrown into the Void, he had   
remained here, in this room or a hidden bunker nearby, to stay hidden from Naugus. Both   
of them knew that if the sorcerer ever found Ari, he would either be killed or converted   
into one of Naugus's servants, like the King.   
  
It had scarcely been a year since Naugus had begun to trust his servant enough to   
teach him some minor magical tricks, for use in his studies. Although the king's budding   
talents were still small, they had proven to be useful. Soon after Ari arrived, Max erected   
a magical ward around the throne room that would be able to fool Naugus's bizarre   
sensing power. The sorcerer would never be able to sense Ari's presence. Unfortunately,   
the limited range of the ward kept him chained to this single room.  
  
"Exactly. I didn't tell you because you never would've been able to concentrate   
on what Naugus tells you to do. He would've killed you."  
  
The King sighed, looking down at the floor. "I see. Now that I... that I know, is   
there anything you can tell me about my daughter? I just want to know... what I missed."  
  
"She saved my life once," Ari said, "just after we first met. She risked her own to   
do it, too, even though I was the one who sold out her friends to Robotnik."  
The King glanced over at the wall where the video screen had been.  
  
Ari continued. "Seeing her roboticization, on Naugus's monitor, was as much a   
shock to me as it was to you. Nothing deserves an existence like that. Not even   
Robotnik. But at least I feel better knowing that, while she was out there and alive, she   
did good. She helped a lot of people, many more than just me. She leaves a fine legacy   
behind, your Highness."  
  
"I won't be able to see any of it. I can't be there for her. And she still ends up   
suffering a fate even worse than death."  
  
"We're in the Void, sire. We can't change any of that. But we can do one thing.   
Sally deserves a better memorial than either Naugus or Robotnik have given her."  
The King looked up, meeting Ari's eyes.  
  
"She's a completely different person than the one I left behind in Mobotropolis,"   
Max said. "I can't give her that. I don't even know my own daughter anymore."   
Determination sparkled in his eyes. "That's another thing we can change, though."  
  
He stood up, marching in a straight line towards the throne room's large doorway.   
His cloak swept through the air behind him.  
  
Ari watched him leave. "Where are you going?"  
  
"I'm going to use the surveillance device that blasted wizard keeps locked up.   
Look in on my daughter's life before her roboticization."  
  
The ram frowned. "Naugus has forbidden you to use it, though. He'll be... upset   
if he finds you there."  
  
"Who the hell cares?" The King slammed the door behind him as he left.  
  



	2. Unattainable Memories

Chapter 2: Unattainable Memories  
  
---  
  
It seemed that the King had scarely moved more than twenty paces past the   
doorway when he was already upon his destination. In the Void, distance, like time, was   
something that could easily be magically negated. He made short work of the lock barring   
his entry, and stepped inside.  
  
Naugus's workshop was empty.  
  
Max was in a large, cavernous room that was at least twice the size of his own   
imperious throne room. Most of the space was simply empty, though, with nothing but   
craggy gray rock walls for decoration. Occasionally, though, a table filled with various   
artifacts dotted the floor's expanse, and there were bookshelves scattered across the walls   
at seemingly random intervals. Each shelve was nearly full, and the books contained there   
were not placed in the neatly arranged order of someone who possessed the tomes just for   
show, in the sloppy, half-exposed manner of someone who was too busy using those   
books to make them look tidy.  
  
A tunnel snaked away from the workshop on the opposite end of the chamber,   
leading into a solid rock wall. It was from there that Naugus would usually open the   
Void's portal during his experiments.  
  
Most of the tables and twisted bits of machinery were clustered near the doorway   
that Max had entered through. He deftly weaved between them, moving towards a larger,   
more complex structure.  
  
The scrying device that he and Naugus had invented looked deceptively simple. It   
was a single blank video monitor suspended above a bench, with a large chair perched   
nearby. The King sat down, feeling uncomfortably small in a chair sized for Naugus's   
much larger form.  
  
There were no buttons, levers, or switches. Naugus distrusted technology and   
electronics, and believed that anything that they could accomplish could be done better   
with magic. The surveillance device's only interface was the user's mind. Thankfully,   
having acquired a modest amount of Naugus's own magic skills, Max could use it.  
  
He drummed his fingers on the desk for a moment, staring at the inky black of the   
empty monitor. A sigh escaped his lips.  
  
Time really was no constraint in the Void. A micro-fissure could be opened   
anywhere, and at any time.  
  
**Show me my daughter's life. **  
  
---  
  
3224. The outskirts of Mobotropolis.  
  
"Where are we going, Rosie?" A walrus tugged at the nanny's bright red dress.   
Several pairs of small feet, mostly barefoot, were running as fast as they could manage   
down the dimly lit red passageway. Except for the nanny, they were all children, none of   
them any older than six years. Most of their eyes were wide with fear; it was clear that   
none of them could really comprehend what was happening to their city. Three of them   
the King recognized immediately. The blue-quilled hedgehog was there. One of them   
also had the light brown fur and long, pointed noise of the french-accented fox that the   
King had seen die in the corridors of the warehouse.  
  
Sally Acorn was also there, running alongside the hedgehog. Of all the children,   
hers was the only face that wasn't twisted in some form of helpless distress. She was   
silent, her mouth pursed into a tight, thin line. There wasn't any detectable fear in her   
eyes, only a slight twinge of sorrow and regret overshadowed by simple determination to   
get where she was going.  
  
"To somewhere safe, Rotor," Rosie answered between pauses for breath. It was   
clear that they had been running for some time. The King smiled when he saw the old   
nanny, one of the few genuinely pleasant people he had met during his tenure on the   
throne. The Void had never given him a chance to remember her.  
  
"When can we go back home?" another child, a long-eared female rabbit, solicited   
anxiously.  
  
"Soon, I hope." Rosie said, still reassuring despite all that had happened. "I'm   
sure the Royal Army will be able to sort this mess in no time."  
  
"Is what happened to Uncle Chuck happening to everyone in the city?" the   
hedgehog asked tearfully, voice pleading for the right response.  
  
Rosie didn't answer.  
  
At last, the group of children reached the end of the corridor. Rosie's palm hit a   
button concealed from the King's limited camera view. A door hissed open, and bright   
natural sunlight flooded into the corridor. Almost as one, the children all raised their   
hands to block out the light as their eyes adjusted to it. Not allowing for any time to rest   
or pause, Rosie quickly herded them all out into the door. The King willed the camera   
view to change.  
  
They were standing outside in the forest, on a hill overlooking the suburbs of the   
great city. Mobotropolis's towering spires were just visible in the distance. Some of the   
children paused as they gazed towards the skyscrapers, their breath catching in their   
throats. Rosie kept trying to move them onwards, fighting against stubborn legs that   
didn't want to move.  
  
"Please, move quickly, children," she implored, giving them gentle shoves in the   
right direction, "we're going to a retreat out in the Great Forest. We'll all be safe out   
there; it's one of Sally's father's hidden hideaways. He and Sir Char-" Rosie's eye caught   
the distant city, and the shock stopped her in her tracks. "Oh no!"  
  
A vast, dark cloud of boiling smog loomed over the city, as still and silent as a   
child's nightmare. Vast tendrils of smoke coiled upwards from the massive fires that raged   
throughout the cityscape, curling upwards and joining the ash and debris that would soon   
grow large enough to blot out the sun. From this distance, both the bright blazes and   
smoke appeared motionless.  
  
Many of the city's pristine white-tinted structures had been painted over by the   
smog and ash into a cruel, metallic gray. Other buildings had changed in the most horrible   
ways, either collapsed in on themselves, or bent into new shapes by a technology that   
Rosie couldn't begin to imagine. She couldn't even make out the silhouette of the King's   
pyramidal place: usually, its size made it the first building visible when approaching the   
city. Now it was simply... gone.  
  
The group was silent for a long moment. After glancing once at the city, Sally's   
gaze fell slowly to the ground in front of her. The corners of her mouth curled   
downwards, her eyes gleamed with loss.  
  
"Rosie," the rabbit asked, voice trembling, "the Royal Army isn't gonna be able to   
fix this. Is it?"  
  
"I-I..." For a moment, Rosie didn't know how to even begin answering. "We'll   
find out. Come on, children! We have to get to Knothole!"  
  
Her voice spurred them all into action. Sally was the last to start moving, but   
when she ran, she ran with a vigor and resolve that not even Rosie could match.  
  
Later in the afternoon, the group progressed further and further into the wilds of   
the Great Forest, following ancient animal tracks and unused trails. Time had worn down   
most of the day's earlier panic. The children now followed Rosie at a leisurely pace as   
they moved through the trees. Sally still hadn't spoken a word since leaving the city   
behind.  
  
Mobotropolis was no longer visible past the horizon, even when trees didn't block   
it, but the ominous cloud of smoke and ash continued to grow in the sky.  
  
"Sally?" Rosie asked cautiously. "Are you all right? You've been awfully quiet so   
far."  
  
Sally looked up at Rosie, and nodded. "I just miss my dad."  
  
---  
  
3228. The Great Forest.  
  
"I... I just found him there, Sal. Alone. I couldn't just leave him."  
  
"I know, I know, but..." Sally trailed off, moving her gaze from the hedgehog to   
the small cub. He couldn't have been more than a toddler. He was standing, watching   
them from the other side of the clearing. She lowered her voice so that the cub couldn't   
hear her, feeling guilty for do so all the while. "It could be a trap, Sonic. We know that   
Robotnik's still on the lookout for survivors of the coup."  
  
The nine-year-old hedgehog scratched his head. "A trap? This little guy? C'mon,   
get serious, Sal."  
  
"I am serious. If his village was destroyed, then how did he survive? Did he ever   
tell you?"  
  
"Well, no..."  
  
"Robotnik could've planted a tracking device on him, hoping that someone   
charitable enough would take him back to their village. Then he'd just have another   
target."  
  
"Yeah, that does sound like something Robuttnik would do," the hedgehog   
relented. "But it still seems far-fetched."  
  
"Well, where did you find him?"  
  
"He was out in the open, wandering around the rubble of the village. I heard him   
crying."  
  
Sally frowned. "If he was out in the open during the attack, do you think that   
there's any way the SWATbots could've missed him?"  
  
"No way! They would've spotted the little guy, all right." Sonic glanced back   
over at the cub. "But here's how I see it, Sal. We have two choices: we either take our   
chances and bring him back to Knothole, or we leave just leave him out here." His eyes   
glistened. "Sal, if we just leave him out here, you know he'll die. He's too young to   
survive on his own."  
  
Sally's face sagged, and there was a long silence. The cub watched them   
curiously.  
  
"We're too young to be making these kinds of decisions, Sonic," she said softly.  
  
"Robuttnik forces everyone to grow up fast." The hedgehog's fists clenched and   
unclenched.  
  
"But with options like those, what choice do we really have?" Sally asked, and   
sighed. "We just have to hope for the best. I'll walk with the cub back to Knothole.   
You'd better go on ahead, tell Rosie what you found."  
  
"You got it." With that, the hedgehog was gone. A trail of dust marked his   
passage southward.  
  
"Whoa!" the cub exclaimed, watching him go, clearly impressed by the speed. He   
ran over to Sally's side of the clearing to see the hedgehog receding into the distance.  
  
Sally studied the fox cub carefully. Two bright orange tails peeked out from   
behind his back. For the past four years of her life, she had been isolated from everybody   
but the people who had found their way to Knothole. She had never had to deal with   
children younger than herself, and for a moment, wasn't sure what to do.  
  
"Are you ready to go, honey?" she asked cautiously. **Honey? ** she thought to   
herself, mildly disgusted. **Not even Rosie is that corny anymore. **  
  
"Go? Where are we going?"  
  
"To a place called Knothole village. It's safe there."  
  
The fox cub looked angry for a moment. "That's what they said about home.   
They said that it was safe there, but they lied."  
  
"I'm sure they didn't lie," Sally said, reflexively.  
  
The cub looked up at her. "Then why did the robots come and turn everybody to   
metal?" He looked like he was about to burst into tears. Sally found herself resting a   
comforting hand on the cub's shoulder, although she was sure that she never told her hand   
to do that in the first place. She honestly didn't have an answer for the cub.  
  
"Do you, um, do you have a name?"  
  
The cub sniffled for a moment before answering. "Yeah. My parents call me   
'Miles', but I hate that name. Everyone else calls me 'Tails'."  
  
"That sounds like a fun name," Sally said hopefully. "How old are you?"  
  
The fox was still downcast, but he seemed to cheer up a little when Sally asked   
this. "Three-and-a-half," he recited.  
  
An idea struck Sally. "Tails, do you enjoy… stories?"  
  
He nodded slowly, warily.  
  
Sally leaned down to the cub's height, pointing over his shoulder. His eyes   
followed to the point where her finger was tracing. "Well, just over that hill right there, is   
the village where me and my friends live. There are a couple old storybooks sitting in my   
hut. I could read some of them to you... if you'd like."  
  
The fox cub looked up at her, smiling warmly. It was the first time that she'd ever   
seen him happy.  
  
---  
  
3233. Knothole Village.  
  
A quiet breeze picked up fragments of dust and dirt, kicking them gently along in   
its relentless quest eastward. Tree branches rustled, mimicking the sounds of sandy ocean   
surf. Small piles of stone were scattered about in the clearing. For a moment, Max   
thought that he'd accidentally opened the camera micro-fissure in the wrong place and   
time, for there was no other movement.  
  
Then he spotted it. A small bundle of brown fur huddled underneath one of the   
numerous trees, the fur color camouflaging nicely against the tree bark. Sally was sitting   
on the ground, hugging her knees, staring at one of the larger piles of stone. Her   
expression was unreadable.   
  
A distant stream trailed off into the forest, its passage leaving a clear line of sight   
through the otherwise impenetrable wall of foliage. The King could make out far-away   
thatched-roof huts down close to the water's edge. Voices, muted by distance, carried   
across the forest: children, some Sally's age, some younger, playing.  
  
Sally paid them no attention, only staring at the stone.  
  
The King peered at one of them, squinting to try and make out the writing etched   
into some of the stones' surfaces. On one, carved into the flat side of a rock, he saw the   
name "Julayla".  
  
Julayla? The King recognized the name instantly. She had been Sally's teacher   
and mentor in Mobotropolis.  
  
It suddenly dawned on him that Sally was in a cemetery.  
  
He peered at the stone that had so absorbed his daughter's attention. It read: "To   
the Memory of Alicia and Maximillian Acorn."  
  
Still Sally didn't move.  
  
---  
  
3235. Robotropolis, Ivo Robotnik's castle.  
  
"I hate decisions like this..."  
  
Sally peered through the airshaft's grate, down at the distant floor of the room   
outside. The now-familiar echo of SWATbot boots rang from somewhere far below, out   
of sight. Other than the slight glow of flickering computer monitors, the room was   
motionless and empty.  
  
The room suddenly snapped into place in the King's mind. This had been his own   
throne room once, his real throne room, in Mobotropolis. But it had changed in the most   
horrible, unnatural fashion; it was as if somebody had ripped out the pristine marble walls   
and replaced them with solid metal.  
  
Gradually, Max became away of a curious, high-toned chiming in the background,   
like a parlor arcade game.  
  
A dark shape stirred behind Sally, and a scaly tail was briefly visible in the sparse   
light cast from below the vent. "What are we gonna do?"  
  
Sally shook her head. "I don't know, Dulcy. What can we do?"  
  
"Well, I can-"  
  
A sonorous laugh resonated throughout the room below, interrupting the dragon.   
The pinging noise had stopped momentarily. The King scowled when he recognized   
Julian's voice. "One small step for the rodent, one very large *stick* for me!" The   
pinging noise resumed.  
  
The dragon's eyes blazed in the darkness for a moment, and when she spoke again   
she was quieter. "I can drop down, take 'em by surprise, and put the freeze on those   
two." She paused for an adolescent giggle. "Literally."  
  
"It's too risky. What if one of the guards manages to shoot you before you can do   
anything?"  
  
"Well... I dunno. But what else can we do?"  
  
"We can get out of here, and save ourselves," Sally hissed.  
  
"But what about-"  
  
Sally cut the dragon off before she could continue. "He's the one who sold us out.   
He's the one who trapped Sonic and just gave him to Robotnik. Do you really think that   
he's worth our own lives?"  
  
The two Freedom Fighters were silent for a moment. Julian spoke to someone   
again, still out of the King's field of view.  
  
"I admire your spirit, rodent, but this game's far from over." A roaring sound   
momentarily drowned out the unceasing jingling.  
  
"What's he doing to Sonic?" Sally asked anxiously, a bitter twinge of helplessness   
locked in her tone.  
  
The frail human, Julian's lackey, appeared in the corner of the room. He stepped   
over to the array of computer consoles. "Sir! Our guest has arrived!"  
  
Julian stepped into view, ridiculous cape sweeping through the air behind him. A   
smile was almost cracking his face in two, and it was growing deeper by the second. He   
heaved his colossal form into a pale green chair. "Invite him in, then, Snively."  
  
The dragon looked at the Princess. "Uh-oh. It's decision time, Sally. What are   
we gonna do?"  
  
"It isn't worth our risking ourselves," Sally repeated to herself, like a mantra.   
"He's the one who sold us out. We don't owe him anything, least of all this. We're not   
going to lose our lives over him."  
  
Snively frowned at the monitors. "It, uh, appears that he's showing himself in,   
sir."  
  
The doors at the end of the hallway threw themselves open, and like a force of   
nature, a ram stormed into Robotnik's throne room. SWATbots immediately came to   
attention, laser-augmented wrists at the ready. The King's eyes widened.  
  
It was Ari!  
  
The ram's voice was angry enough to act as a weapon of its own. "All right,   
Robotnik! I delivered Sonic. Now release my Freedom Fighters!"  
  
"Of course, dear boy, I always keep my promises. Snively, bring in Ari's...   
friends."  
  
Doors at the far end of the room hissed open, and a troupe of metal-skinned   
roboticized Mobians marched through. They all stopped as one, and the sound of their   
steel heels clacking against the floor filled the room. "What is this? Robotnik! We had a   
deal!"  
  
"Deals only exist to be broken, dear boy."  
  
"Sally!" Dulcy whispered urgently. "What are we gonna do?"  
  
"Freedom Fighters don't risk their lives to save traitors," Sally said. A resigned   
sigh escaped her lips. "But..."  
  
"But what?"  
  
"I-I remember something from my childhood. An old phrase that my father taught   
me. A life is a life is a life. And right now, there's a life we can save. That's all that   
matters. Get ready to break him out, Dulcy."  
  
---  
  
King Max Acorn slumped down in the chair, watching the scene unfold on the   
monitor before him. The corner of his lip trembled momentarily. When he had first turned   
on the monitor he had expected, like a child, that gaining a better understanding of what   
had become of Sally in the years in his absence would make mourning her death easier.  
  
He wanted to switch off the monitor and kill his memories, but could bring himself   
to do neither.  
  
Naugus's words came back to him, suddenly and without cause: "Time is   
something that happens to other people."  
  
So much had changed, in so little time.  
  
It was so helplessly infuriating, being able to see it all happen but unable to change   
anything. The Void existed outside time and would let him watch his daughter's life and   
death occur over and over again, but that was the extent of its powers.  
  
Perhaps one day, when he and Naugus had finally figured out a way to escape the   
confines of the prison dimension, he could open a portal to a date just before Sally's death   
and change history himself.  
  
Max shook his head. He couldn't live with himself if he just gave up, waiting for a   
day that might never come. It was already maddening knowing what had happened, but it   
would be worse being forced to live with himself afterwards, knowing that he had just   
*given up*. Whenever his daughter was concerned, there was no more foul word than   
'surrender'.  
  
"No," the King said to himself, feeling the muscles in his fist tighten. "There must   
be something that can be done." The fist trembled, overcome by powerless rage.   
"*Something*."  
  
On the monitor that was his only connection to the outside world, the King   
watched his daughter march unknowingly into the future, and to the bleak aspect of being   
just another mindless servant. From the time that the camera was currently watching, it   
would only be another eight months of Sally's time before her roboticization.  
  
The figure on the video monitor seemed so tauntingly real. Max held out his hand,   
reaching towards the video monitor, hoping against hope that his hand would pass through   
the screen and be able to touch his daughter. His fingers met the cold, smooth surface of   
the monitor instead.  
  
"I can't just sit back and watch!" he cried.  
  
As he spoke, Naugus's words came to the forefront of his mind again, and Max   
didn't know why: "Time is something that happens to other people."  
  
The only thing that the King could do from the Void was open the micro-fissure   
portals that acted as the scrying device's camera.  
  
Open the portal...  
  
The King's eyes widened as a sudden, terrible thought struck him. He couldn't do   
that to Sally, not even to save her life. Could he?  
  
He could open the portal micro-fissures... which meant that he could open a larger   
portal as well. If it worked, he could save her life, even though he would remain trapped   
in the confines of the prison dimension.  
  
But the cost would be horrific.  
  
---  
  
3235, two months before Sally's roboticization. Knothole Village.  
  
The sun had disappeared below the horizon hours ago, reducing the forest's   
illumination to the ethereal white glow of the stars and crescent moon. Treetops stretched   
out into the distance until they became indistinct, colorless shadows. Sally Acorn sat   
underneath one of the tree trunks, staring up at the listless nighttime sky.  
  
Knothole village was almost invisible in the darkness; most of the thatched-roof   
buildings were dark and languid, save for the golden glow of a few working lightbulbs in   
the sleeping town. Their light seeped out of windows and cracks in doorways, spilling   
across the ground in an odd assortment of shapes and sizes. The gentle splashing noise of   
Rotor's waterwheel was the only noise in the village, but even it too seemed lethargic.  
  
Sally was the only thing that dared move in the stillness. Her face was screwed up   
in concentration, still staring at the sky. Her fingers strummed against the tree trunk   
absentmindedly.  
  
"Stars swirled around the blank canvas of the murky sky, dancers frozen in the   
eternal pirouette of a playwright's static template," she said, never moving her eyes from   
the scene above her. She frowned to herself, and shook her head. "Nah..."  
  
"Eternal piro-what-now?"  
  
Sally flinched, and glanced back at the darkness behind the tree trunk. The   
hedgehog's outline was silhouetted against the shine of Knothole's few lightbulbs. He   
stepped forward, eyes quizzically looking at her.  
  
"Pirouette," she said, smiling slyly. "You know. A spin, or a turn. A dance."  
  
"Uh-huh," Sonic said doubtfully, glancing up at the stars and then back down at   
Sally. "It's getting late. Is the sleep deprivation starting to get to you, Sal?"  
  
"I feel fine," Sally insisted, patting the ground to the left of her. Sonic obediently   
took a seat.  
  
"Then why are talking to yourself?" the hedgehog asked, eyebrow raised.   
"Especially goobledy-gook like that?"  
  
"It's just a little exercise I like to try occasionally," she said. "Just come out here,   
late at night, stare at the stars, and think of different ways to describe them." An   
embarrassed grin snuck involuntarily across her face. "The one you heard wasn't very   
good."  
  
"Are you practicing to be a writer, or something?" Sonic nodded in the direction   
of Robotropolis. "I hate to break it to you, Sal, but with Robuttnik in control of the   
planet you're not going to have much of an audience."  
  
"No, no, I'm not – it's just something I enjoy doing. For myself."  
  
"Uh-huh," he said again, even more skeptically then before.  
  
She shrugged, still smiling, stroking her chin. "Though I'd never thought about   
that before. If we do take back the planet, someone's got to write the memoirs of the   
war. Why, it could top the best seller lists for years to come..."  
  
"Don't get too far ahead of yourself, Sal." Sonic stared up at the sky that had held   
her so transfixed. He sighed. "So what else have you got besides the one I heard?"  
  
"How about these," Sally said, surprising herself with an unexpected reluctance to   
share the prose she had composed in private. " 'A crescent moon lay poised as a thief's   
cloaked stiletto, ready to split the air and impale the landscape at a provocation that never   
arrives.' 'Tousled treetops fluttered in the bleak midnight breeze, a barmy painter's   
dilapidated brush streaking across the sky in a futile quest to produce art."  
  
"They all made about as much sense as the first one," Sonic admitted.  
  
"I don't know why I enjoy doing this, I just do." Sally glanced at him. "You   
should really try it sometime."  
  
"What? Me? Get serious."  
  
"Go on, try it. You'll like it."  
  
The hedgehog sighed in resignation, giving up. He stared at the dark, somber sky   
for a moment, eyes focusing on the sliver of a moon. "All right, I think I've got one. It's   
good, too."  
  
She leaned towards him, attentive. "I'm waiting."  
  
Sonic held his hands up to the air, gesturing towards the lunar crescent. "Here   
goes: 'The moon hung in the sky like a big ball of rock.' "  
  
Sally stared at him, blank-faced.  
  
"You like it, don't you?" the hedgehog grinned.  
  
"Sonic, that wasn't even – you're not supposed to describe it *that* way."  
  
"What?" Sonic threw her a look of genuine confusion. "But that's exactly what it   
is!"  
  
"The point of this exercise is to create," Sally said, exasperated. "Invent."  
  
"Uh-huh." The skepticism had returned. "So you're saying that Rotor would be   
really good at this, right?"  
  
Sally theatrically buried her face in her hands. "Never mind." She looked up, and   
sighed. "You just need some practice at this. That's all."  
  
"I don't know if I want the practice," Sonic said bitterly.  
  
She gave him a playful punch in the arm. "C'mon, it is getting late. We'd better   
head back to the village, and get some sleep before we faint."  
  
"Hear, hear," Sonic agreed, getting up and graciously extending an arm to help   
Sally to her feet.  
  
"But we're coming back out here tomorrow night," Sally insisted. "And you're   
working on some more prose."  
  
"Oh, no, Sal. Have some mercy."  
  
"You're coming. That's an ord-"  
  
A thunderclap of light and sound burst through the village, tearing through forest   
and wooden structures like a supernova. Instinctively, Sally reached out to grab Sonic's   
hand. She felt a force, like a shockwave of compressed air slam against her lithe form.   
For a moment, there was nothing underneath her feet. Then the ground came up to meet   
her.  
  
It was over in an instant.  
  
When Sally looked up, she found herself on a patch of dirt more than five meters   
away from where she and Sonic had been standing. The hedgehog himself was just   
getting to his feet, having been tossed in the opposite direction.  
  
"...the hell was that?" he was saying, voice barely audible over the ringing in   
Sally's ears. She glanced in the direction of Knothole village, fearing only the worst.  
To her relief, the town was still standing. Only a few wooden beams had been   
knocked over in the split second maelstrom. A storage shed had collapsed, but that was   
the extent of the damage. Whatever it was had severed Rotor's power cables or damaged   
the waterwheel; the light bulbs that had been left on had been extinguished. Some of the   
town's inhabitants had emerged from darkened huts, looking around in panic and   
confusion.  
  
A strong wind began to pick up, and an eldritch violet light shone from behind   
Sally. She quickly turned around to stare at the source, expecting to see an armada of   
Robotnik's ground troops poised and ready to invade Knothole. Her eyes widened when   
she saw the glowing purple and yellow portal that had formed just beyond the tree trunk.  
"Oh, no!" she turned to Sonic, eyes wide. "That's the Void!"  
  
The wind immediately amplified in strength to a gale-force gust, knocking Sally's   
feet out from under her once more. The strength of the squall was amazing. Sally's hands   
clawed at the ground, vainly trying to grab a handful of grass.  
  
Sonic barely managed to outpace the wind, revving up his legs and running as fast   
as possible away from the portal. His outstretched hand reached towards Sally. She tried   
to grab it, but she couldn't fight the wind long enough to take her grip off of the clump of   
grass.  
  
She felt her fingers falter - this was it, she knew - and suddenly there was nothing   
there for her palm to clasp around. There wasn't any earth underneath her.  
  
"Sally!" the hedgehog screamed. His voice was further and further away.  
  
The world vanished around her in a burst of purple and yellow.  
  



	3. The Meaning of Futility

Chapter 3: The Meaning of Futility  
  
---  
  
She hardly noticed the falling. There wasn't any sensation of her stomach   
dropping away, or her inner ears screaming in protest. Traveling down the Void's   
gateway wasn't much like moving at all, she noticed. It seemed instead that you remained   
motionless, floating in empty air, while the world itself shifted around you. The same   
forces that prevented any escape from within the prison dimension made travel inward   
absurdly easy.  
  
Tracking your speed while inside the portal was nearly impossible. Not only did it   
not seem like she was moving at all, in the portal but there were no landmarks or   
discernible distances to measure. Sally knew that she must have been moving quite   
quickly, though, for at the end the ride came to a very sudden stop.  
  
Things became all too real again. Sensation returned. This time, Sally could feel   
herself falling, could sense the air whirling past her. She couldn't see anything but a dark   
gray blur. Something struck her body hard and without warning, a surface with the rough   
grainy texture of rock. It must have been a floor, or a wall; she couldn't tell which. She   
didn't have time to move her hands out in front of her to absorb the blow. She felt her   
skull crack against the rock, hard, and everything went black.  
  
She didn't know how long she had remained unconscious. It must have only been   
a few seconds, because when she returned to awareness, the disquieting howling of the   
Void's portal still permeated the air. She found herself lying on the floor of the same   
rocky quality. It was a cavern of some sort; strange machines lay strewn about the floor   
like rubble, casting even more bizarre shadows in the Void's unearthly light.  
  
The Void itself was contained in a tunnel that coiled away from the main chamber   
itself. The portal was growing continually more violent. When she stared at it, the light   
and sound emanating from the vortex had become so intense, so violent, that Sally could   
hardly distinguish the two senses. It had become one horrifying intermix. Her eyes   
threatened of going blind, her ears screeched of deafness. Quickly, she cast her gaze   
away, but not before seeing a silhouette of a man outline against the portal. His arms   
were raised as if struggling with the Void itself.  
  
She clenched her eyes shut. A voice carried across the winds, on the verge of   
being drowned out by the violence of the portal.  
  
"Close, damn you!" it shouted. "Close!"  
  
The King snarled fiercely, fighting with the gateway of the Void. Almost   
undetectable against the hurricane of light, energy streaked away from his fingertips into   
the portal, which obstinately refused to close. Naugus had never instructed him on using   
his magical talents to open the Void, but he thought he had learned enough to attempt   
opening the portal on his own. It was clear that he hadn't. Something had gone wrong.   
The portal itself had become too unstable, out-of-control. Surely Naugus, no matter how   
far away he was, would detect this.  
  
Lightning arced away from him, into the portal. The energy was so powerful that   
the King didn't dare look directly at the gateway itself. The only sign that the portal's   
energy was abating was that the light created by Max's own magic was more visible   
against the vortex's intense aura.  
  
Finally the portal shut, screeching like the laws of physics themselves were on the   
verge of snapping in half. Max lowered his arms, heaving a sigh of relief.  
  
Gradually, he became aware of another's presence in the lab. He whirled around,   
thinking that it was Naugus. He hadn't seen or heard anybody enter through the doorway,   
but with the sensory overload coming from the Void's portal, it would have been   
impossible too. Instinctively, he held his arms in the air in front of him like a shield.  
  
Instead he saw a small mass of brown fur sprawled helplessly across the ground.  
  
Sally groaned, and shook her head to clear it of the impact, and the remnants of   
the invasive light and sound. She only opened her eyes when the blazing visual inferno   
had died away. A bruise was forming under the fur on her forehead; she had been moving   
*fast* when she hit the rock. Sally made a quick mental note to have Bookshire check her   
over for signs of a concussion back at Knothole.  
  
Then she remembered where she was: the Void had claimed her. There wasn't any   
way to get back to Knothole.  
  
She rose slowly to her feet, glancing around the cavern. Without the light from the   
portal, she could see her surroundings much more clearly. Most of the odd machines   
strewn around were clustered near what appeared to be the cavern's only doorway. None   
of them were recognizable or had any obvious purpose. On a few machines, she was able   
to recognize simple components, such as gears or other moving parts, although as to what   
purpose drove them all she was left in the dark.  
  
Where the Void's portal had been was now a solid rock wall. An adult brown-  
furred squirrel, in a bright blue outfit, stood staring that it and breathing heavy. He looked   
exhausted. There was something about him that tugged at Sally's mind, but her mind was   
too frazzled by the blow to her skull to place it.  
  
As if to emphasize the injury, she started to lose her balance. Dizzy, she reached   
out to grab and support herself on one of the nearby apparatuses. Sally imagined her inner   
ears spinning around in endless circles.  
  
The squirrel turned around to face her, and suddenly Sally was able to place his   
face. Her breath caught in her throat, but a single word managed to escape.  
  
"Daddy!"  
  
The shock was too much. She stumbled backwards, losing her grip on the   
supporting apparatus. Her confused inner ears told her that gravity itself was shifting.   
Sally fell unceremoniously to the ground, landing flat on her back. Air rushed out of her   
lungs in a sharp exhale.  
  
Before he even had a chance to think, Max Acorn found himself rushing over to   
his daughter's side, cradling her in his arms. Nothing else mattered now, not Naugus, not   
the Void, not Mobotropolis. The only thing in the world now was the fact that his   
daughter was hurt, and that he was there to help her.  
  
Sally didn't try to fight or move away, but only gazed upward at her father as he   
brushed aside a tuft of red hair to see the injury. The bruise didn't look too bad, but the   
King was no expert on cranial trauma. He knew, though, she had been able to pull herself   
to her feet before. That was a good sign.  
  
"Daddy, is it really..."  
  
"Shhhhhh, child," he hushed her. "Don't try to move. It's all right."  
  
He felt her limbs sag with relief, as if his word alone had lifted the tensions and   
ordeals of over a decade of torment. Max remembered the way that she had, as a child,   
accepted anything he said as nothing less than the absolute truth. He was once again   
struck by how much and how little had changed.  
  
"It's been so long," she whispered, noticeably calmer.  
  
"Why am I here, though?" she asked. "What happened?"  
  
"I brought you here," the King said, still tenderly rubbing his fingers across the   
injury. He was hesitant to say what had to be said next. "Sally, I saved your life."  
  
Thankfully, her composure didn't disintegrate into panic. "From what?"  
  
"Julian."  
  
This time it did, but she didn't panic for the sake of herself. Concern for the others   
flashed in Sally's eyes. "Robotnik was in Knothole? Then-"  
  
"No, no," the King sighed, "that's not it at all." He had been expecting to feel joy   
upon saving his daughter's life, even if it meant condemning her to the Void, but now he   
didn't feel any different. Even with her right here, he felt as if he were still mourning her   
death. "In two months time, you were going to be captured in one of the city's   
warehouses." He leaned forward. "Sally, you were going to be roboticized!"  
  
"In two months?" her gaze fell back to the wall that had been the portal. "Then   
how do... how do you know?"  
  
"I can't really explain it, except to say that this place exists *outside* of time. I   
hardly understand it myself."  
  
"Outside of time?" she asked quizzically.  
  
"I hardly understand it myself. But I saw it, Sally. I saw it happen." He took a   
deep breath. "You must have some idea of how difficult that was. I couldn't bear to-"  
  
Sally's next question took the King completely by surprise. "Where's Naugus?"  
  
His composure faltered, and he took an unintentional step backward. Sally was   
able to slowly pull herself up to at least a sitting position. She met her father's gaze with a   
hard stare, boring into his eyes.  
  
"How do you know about Naugus?" he asked, breathless.  
  
She frowned in confusion. "What do you mean, how do I know about Naugus? I,   
uh, met him the last time I was here. Remember?"  
  
"You've been inside the Void before? But that's- that's impossible."  
  
She looked at him helplessly. "Don't you remember?"  
  
"Remember what?" Max demanded.  
  
"Naugus tried to trap some of my friends in here, and exploit Sonic's speed to   
escape the Void. That's when I saw you for the first time since the coup." Max stared,   
wide-eyed and numbed, at her. She tried again desperately. "That's when you gave me   
the list of the other Freedom Fighter groups."  
  
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Max said, feeling more lost than he   
ever had, even when he had witnessed his daughter's death. At least then he had   
understood what was happening.  
  
Sally bit her lip. "Exactly how... does time behave around here, again?"  
  
"No. Oh, no. It must be something has happened in your past, but," the King   
hesitated, trying to force the words out of his dry throat, "has yet to happen in my future.   
Bean, this is the first time I've seen you since you were five years old."  
  
"This is too much," Sally was finally able to rise to her feet, albeit unsteadily. Her   
right hand still gripped a nearby table for support, while her other hand hovered delicately   
over the bruise still blossoming on her forehead.  
  
"All that matters now is that you're here. You're alive." He reached forward to   
embrace his daughter, but she shrugged him away, questions still burning in her eyes.  
  
"In two months, you said... what happens?"  
  
"It'll happen during a foray into the city. Peacebots-" the King stopped himself,   
"SWATbots will ambush and capture you. They'll kill your friends."  
  
"Kill?" Sally gasped. "What about Sonic?"  
  
"He... he dies," the King confessed.  
  
Sally's shoulders sagged, and she looked sharply away. Max thought for a   
moment that she would burst out into tears. Then she straightened, and turned back again   
to face him, her expression hidden behind a mask of resolve. "Then I have to get back.   
There's still so much to do."  
  
"Back?" Max said, unable to contain his shock as one surprise continually   
overcame another. "But you'll die. No, worse than that."  
  
Sally shook her head. "Doesn't matter. If I know about it I can stop it." Max   
tried to look away from her eyes, but couldn't bring himself to.  
  
"What if you can't?"  
  
"Then at least I'll be out there, fighting." The fact that she didn't want to be   
saying this, to her father of all people, was clearly betrayed in her voice "Even another   
two months of life out there, doing what's right, helping other people, would be better   
than an eternity trapped in here." She gestured towards the closed portal. "Out there I   
can fight to put an end to Robotnik. That's a goal that means more than just my life, or   
the lives of my friends."  
  
The King finally to look away from his daughter, but that didn't stop her from   
talking.  
  
"We're not talking about individuals, here, father," she said, voice strained.   
"We're talking about entire civilizations. That's what's worth more than my life. Two   
months of fighting to save Mobotropolis is worth more to me than a lifespan of inactivity."  
  
"I-I can't do it, Sally," Max said. Before he had been unable to look away from   
her; now he was struck by an inability to even glance in her direction. "It doesn't even   
matter that I don't want to. Once inside the Void, nothing can escape. You're trapped   
here with the rest of us."  
  
"What?" Sally seemed surprised for a moment, as if this hadn't even occurred to   
her. "No, that can't be true."  
  
"The portal," the King tossed his hand absently in the direction of the silent tunnel,   
"it does nothing but suck you in here. You must have felt it on your way in. It's like it   
has its own field of gravity that does nothing except pull down here. Trying to escape it   
would be like trying to jump across the Great Plains with only a single leap."  
  
"We've escaped from the Void before," Sally said urgently. The thought hit the   
King with the same impact as a runaway steamroller. He had spent the last two years of   
his life convincing himself that escape was impossible.  
  
"How?"  
  
"Sonic," the Princess said. "His speed can fight the Void's pull long enough to   
escape. He's done it before."  
  
"That's ridiculous," Max protested.  
  
"There's still a way that we can set this right. We have to get Sonic in here," Sally   
insisted. The King forced himself to look at her. "Daddy... he can take both of us out of   
here."  
  
"I don't know if-"  
  
A third voice cut Max off.  
  
"What is this, lackey?"  
  
Max felt his jaw tighten; he instinctively reached out to protectively grab his   
daughter's hand. Sally let out a startled gasp, backing away from the workshop's   
doorway. A moment ago, it had been closed.  
  
Ixis Naugus stood in the entrance, cape billowing around his stout form. Pointed   
teeth were barred behind cracked lips twisted into a snarl.  
  
Max Acorn felt his hopes and dreams for his daughter's safety extinguished in the   
wizard's gaze. He couldn't see Sally, but felt the pressure of her hand squeezing his.  
  
Naugus took a step inward, propelled by the fury burning in his eyes.  
  
"I don't even need to ask what happened here. I suspected as much when I felt   
you open the portal. If you had any *talent* in the magical arts, you might've kept this   
hidden." The sorcerer's voice dropped to a low, throaty growl. "Instead you almost   
destroyed my workshop with your clumsiness. Can't you even control a simple portal,   
lackey?"  
  
Ever since being cast into the Void those many years ago, the King's life had been   
spiraling out of control. His daughter was the only anchor to sanity and independence that   
he'd ever found, and right now he held on to her hand as if it were the only link he had to   
life itself. He squeezed until it hurt; he felt Sally gripping back with equal strength.   
"Please, Naugus. For the past two years my family has been the only thing I've ever   
wanted, or even needed," he beseeched, praying that his words would not fall on unfeeling   
ears.  
  
Naugus only shook his head in disdain. He raised his arm. "Don't waste time   
saying hello, Sire. It only makes saying goodbye that much harder."  
  
His fingers snapped.  
  
The King stumbled forward momentarily, losing his balance without knowing why.   
For a moment, he was afraid that Naugus had struck him with a magical energy bolt.   
Then he felt his fingers slip around nothingness, and the palm that had been clasped   
around his daughter's hand clench around open space.  
  
Sally was gone.  
  
Air rushed in to fill the empty vacuum where Sally's body had been with a *pop*   
that grated against Max's eardrums. He gaped at the bare space for a long moment,   
feeling his heart sink further with each passing second.  
  
"You killed her!" he stuttered at last.  
  
"Nothing so barbaric," Naugus said. "I merely erased her from time. Reached   
backwards to the point where you opened the portal and stopped it from doing so."  
  
Max glanced quickly back at the portal's tunnel, then back at the sorcerer. "You   
mean she's back in the real world?"  
  
"To her, this has never happened," Naugus said. A smile temporarily brightened   
his face. "She'll still die in the warehouse, of course. I told you, lackey. There's nothing   
left out there for you."  
  
Max felt the muscles in his arms tense. He could never truly recall what happened   
next; his memories were blurred by pain. The nearest explanation he could think of was   
that something inside him just snapped. It was as if logic and sanity were gone, vanished   
alongside his daughter. The only thing that remained was puerile emotion.  
  
"You son of a bitch!" Max Acorn launched himself at Naugus. As heir to the   
royal throne of Mobotropolis, his childhood training in combat tactics had been quite   
inclusive. Long-forgotten doctrines of self-defense came back to him: he held both his   
thumbs out, ready to strike into Naugus's larynx.  
  
The wizard wasn't even moderately surprised, and shot the King's legs out from   
underneath him with a magical shove.  
  
Max had been ready for such a strike. He rolled to absorb the impact with the   
floor, and kept his hands extended out in front of them, switching tactics. He kept his   
fingers interlocked against each other, in a splayed pattern. That was important for what   
had to happen next. His hands began to glow with a light all their own.  
  
In the Void, magic was even easier to create and manipulate than in the real world.   
That was what allowed amateurs like Max to even consider casting their own spells. He   
let his mind focus on his goal, exactly as Naugus had instructed him, and let the magic   
swirl in his consciousness. That was the essential concept of magic: focusing on your   
goal.  
  
A bolt of wild, untamed energy leapt from Max's hands and surged towards   
Naugus. It struck the wizard in the face, narrowly glancing of the bony horn in the center   
of his forehead. The magical weapon hadn't been very strong, but Naugus staggered   
backwards in surprise. If it hadn't been for the workshop's nearby rock wall, he would   
have fallen completely off his feet.  
  
Truth be told, the attack stunned the King as much as it did the old wizard. But he   
was determined not to show it. "Don't try anything, Naugus. I can defend myself. Now   
bring her back!"  
  
Naugus carefully rubbed his damaged horn. The blast had chipped away some of   
the rough, bony material. Barred teeth glinted in the light.  
  
"Are you sure you want to challenge me?"  
  
"I don't want anything except my daughter."  
  
Naugus's hand shot outwards, a bolt a livid green energy shooting from his   
fingertips. The King didn't have time to fire back. He held his arm up to block the blow,   
casting a minor defensive spell at the same time. Max only saw the magical bullet   
shooting towards his face, and focused on the goal of protecting himself from it. A shield   
of compressed air sprung up from his arm just as the bolt struck. The magical shield   
absorbed the energy harmlessly.  
  
Before he had come to the Void, he had imagined magic being much more difficult   
to use. But all he had done as he cast the shield was focus on his goal of self-  
preservation... and it had appeared. Max's confidence surged upwards.  
  
"Bring her back!"  
  
Naugus growled, and clenched his fist as if grabbing something. The King felt the   
magic shield tremble, as if Naugus actually *had* managed to grab a hold of it. Then,   
with a single twist of the wizard's wrist, the shield wrenched itself away from the King and   
vanished in midair.  
  
Another bolt of raw magic poured from Naugus's hand, and this time it didn't   
miss. Max felt the bone in his nose crack as it bashed him in the face. It was as if his head   
was on fire; he didn't even feel himself slam backwards into the floor.  
  
Feebly, he held up his arm and tried one last time to cast an offensive spell at   
Naugus. Another blast of the wizard's energy swatted it to the ground and drove iron   
spikes of pain into his chest.  
  
"You amateurs disgust me."  
  
Max heard footsteps somewhere nearby his fallen form. It might have been   
Naugus, but he could concentrate on nothing more than the pain. "Another lesson, then?"   
the wizard rasped angrily. "You'll be lucky if you survive this time."  
  
For the first several hours, there was nothing more than the pain. No questions, no   
interrogations, no commands, just pain. Only when the King had already been thrashed to   
within an inch of his life did Naugus ask the question. The King wavered in and out of   
consciousness, barely able to hear his words.  
  
"If you don't give me the right answer the first time, you will have outlived your   
usefulness as my servant, and I will kill you." Warm, rancid breath spilled across Max's   
ear. "Why do you live?"  
  
It didn't even matter to Max that he only had one chance. He would've answered   
the same in any case, and truthfully.  
  
Maximillion Acorn had been broken.  
  
"To serve you, Master Naugus," he sobbed.  
  
---  
  
Life afterwards didn't seem like living at all. The King lost track of how much   
time had passed since the incident: weeks, definitely, maybe even months. The only thing   
he knew for certain was that each morning he had to awaken to face the knowledge that   
his daughter was dead, and that he had tried for all he was worth and couldn't save her.  
  
He came to crave sleep. At least then he was allowed a modicum of peace, if not   
contentment. In dreams he didn't even have to reflect on the tragic irony that the part of   
his existence he looked most forward to was oblivion.  
  
To consume his spare waking hours, Max concentrated solely on learning more of   
the magical arts. It disturbed him that he couldn't say why or for what purpose. He   
didn't dare to use them to challenge Naugus. He now knew, through bitter experience,   
that he would need almost a lifetime of study and practice to even be a remote threat to   
the wizard.  
  
After the King's last bout of 'insubordination', Naugus wasn't going to offer to   
teach the King anything more about magic. So what new knowledge he did pick up he   
had to glean from ancient textbooks and manuals pilfered from Naugus's workshop.   
Stealing the books had been risky, but he knew that not even Naugus could keep an eye   
on him every minute of the day. So he waited until the time was right, and quietly took   
them back to his own throne room.  
  
The arcane lore was difficult at best to understand, but what Max garnered from   
them was able to bolster his fledgling skills. There was one symbol in particular, though,   
that the King failed to understand. It had never been present in any of Naugus's lessons,   
though perhaps that cagey sorcerer had omitted it by design. The symbol appeared   
regularly in many of the later pages of the textbooks.  
  
Perhaps this was something that Naugus himself had missed out on, the King   
mused. There *had* to be more to magic than simply visualizing your goal and waiting   
for it to happen. Some ingredient must be missing. Mayhap this was it.  
  
Ixis Naugus was even more icily intolerant to the King than before. Sometimes, all   
that was necessary to provoke a burst of excruciating electrical pain was to turning his   
back on the wizard. Naugus had never done that before; his sparse 'lessons' had always   
had some kind of purpose or provocation.  
  
It was a particularly effective treatment, however. Before, the King had only been   
afraid of Naugus. Now he was deathly terrified of him. He couldn't help himself; it was   
almost an unconscious reaction. Whenever Naugus so much as entered the room,   
memories of the pain shuddered down his spine, and he saw himself groveling, doing   
anything, to avoid another lesson.  
  
They certainly weren't the proudest days of his life, but he survived.  
  
There were only a few things in the Max's life that he regretted, and would never   
forgive himself for. Allowing himself to be blinded long enough for Julian to take over   
was the gravest among these. Not being strong enough to save his daughter's life was   
another. The most recent, though, was what he did to Ari one night in the months since   
he last saw Sally.  
  
It had been an uncomfortably cold evening, insofar as much as the Void could have   
weather. After lengthy, tiresome weeks of researching arcane artifacts and physics   
equations to aid Naugus in his never-ending quest to escape the Void, the King had long   
since learned to ignore such mundane distractions. Max had just ended one such session   
of study and had nothing more to look forward to then sleep and sweet oblivion. He was   
about to retire to the false castle's sleeping quarters when Ari had arrived.  
  
The ram had made himself scarce ever since Max's failed attempt to bring his   
daughter into the Void. This was more than fine with Max; he knew that he was   
paralyzed by psychosis and depression, and no longer had any desire to share the company   
of others. He didn't want anybody else to see him in this state.  
  
Yet, here the ram was, standing in front of the throne room's doors and looking as   
if he were waiting for the King to say something. "What do you want?" Max asked,   
unable to block out the icy bitterness that laced his tone.  
  
"To save Sally's life."  
  
The King could only muster a weary yet sincere glare, and pushed past him   
towards his bedroom's doors. "Go away."  
  
Ari moved in front of the King, burly form effectively blocking Max's path. "I'm   
serious, your Majesty."  
  
"No, it won't work. It… it was wrong to even try in the first place."  
  
Ari seemed to ignore his words, which only made him angrier. "The armory the   
Freedom Fighters tried to infiltrate. There's more then one entrance; the warehouse is   
honeycombed with vents, shafts, and tunnels that even Robotnik doesn't know about."  
  
"How do you know about this?" Max demanded.  
  
"I've been sneaking into Naugus's workshop for the past several days, and using   
the scrying device when he's not around. With an omniscient hidden camera, it's easy   
enough to map out."  
  
The King's well-worn self-preservation instinct kicked in, immediately clearing   
away the fog of fatigue. He grabbed Ari roughly by the shoulders. "You *what?*" he   
hissed.  
  
Although Ari was easily King Acorn's physical superior, he was still taken aback   
by the strength in his grip, and didn't immediately respond.  
  
"You fool!" Max burst out. "If you leave the wards I've erected around here,   
Naugus will be able to sense you!" He didn't hold any doubts that Naugus would kill both   
Ari and himself if he discovered that the King had kept him hidden here.  
  
"I left here only when I knew Naugus was asleep," Ari insisted, forcibly calm.   
"Sire, we have to find a way to get this information to Sally. If she knows about the other   
entrances, the SWATbots won't be able to ambush them-"  
  
"No!" The King shoved Ari backwards. "Sally is dead! If you keep doing this,   
Naugus will kill us both!"  
  
"It would be worth it if we could save Sally!" Ari shot back.  
  
Then they came, the words that he would never be able to forgive himself for. "If   
you don't stop this now, I'll turn you over to Master Naugus myself!"  
  
The worst part of all of this, he would reflect later, was that when he said those   
words, he meant them.  
  
Ari stumbled backwards, not from any physical blow, but from pure horror. There   
was a moment of long silence that was worth far more than a thousand spoken words.   
Seeing the look in the ram's eyes, the King realized the full extent of what he just done.   
But before he could speak, Ari was gone, vanished into the shadows.  
  
"Ari… I…"  
  
There was no answer from the darkness. Ari was gone. No sound, no sight of his   
retreating form made itself available in the darkness.  
  
"I…"  
  
The King wasn't even able to lose himself in sleep that night. Not after what had   
just transpired. So after a restless night, he began to seriously consider Ari's words.   
There was more than one entrance to the armory. It all seemed so simple. If only Sally   
and her friends had known, they surely wouldn't have tried to sneak in through the front   
doors. They wouldn't be ambushed in the corridors of the warehouse; it would be like the   
waking nightmare that had consumed his life for the past several months would simply   
never have happened.  
  
At first, it was difficult to even take the idea seriously. Many things had changed   
in the past few months, but the Void itself wasn't one of them. He was still trapped inside   
it, with no way to so much as broadcast a radio signal out. There simply wasn't any way   
he could get this information to his daughter.  
  
And if Naugus found out about any of this, he wouldn't hesitate to execute him.  
  
Yet, despite his fears, the King found himself stealing into Naugus's workshop   
while the wizard was away, and reactivating the scrying device. Over the course of the   
next several weeks, he used it to scout out every last corridor and crevice in the armory   
and surrounding warehouse, carefully sketching out a rough map by hand and bringing the   
parchment back to his chambers every night. One of the few stable, electronic computers   
that existed in the Void was kept there; he's scan the images into its hard drive, and get   
ready to copy more of the map tomorrow night.  
  
The futility of all this was never lost on him. Nothing left the Void. It simply   
wasn't possible to get any of this data to Sally. Yet he kept sketching maps and layouts,   
plotting entrance after entrance, the building's complex air shaft network, everything he   
found. The purposeless of his quest didn't slow or stop him; it was the only thing he had   
left to do.  
  
So, since he wasn't able to get the map to his daughter, it only seemed natural that   
when he finished mapping out the warehouse complex, he move on the other buildings as   
well. In the unlikely event that Sally ever found this, she could make use of that as well.   
The process was painstaking and deliberate, but within the space of another three months,   
Max was able to use both Naugus's scrying device and his ruler's knowledge to map every   
major cave and tunnel system in Robotropolis.  
  
In all this time, there was no sign of Ari. The ram had simply and quietly   
disappeared after his confrontation with the King. Max could hardly blame him. Despite   
the fact that Ari was no where to be found, Max knew that he must have been hiding   
somewhere near the throne room. Naugus would have found him otherwise. It was either   
that, or… Ari had died.  
  
Every day, as he plotted more and more of the map, the King kept a silent lookout   
for Ari, hoping for nothing more than his friend's continued survival.  
  
Max dreaded the day that he finally completed the map. Then there would be   
nothing left to do but to act. As his drawings of the city became more and more detailed,   
a terrible fear began to well up in his heart.  
  
At last the day arrived. The King had mapped out the last building, scanned in the   
last page to the computer. Tonight was the night to act; and the King still had no idea of   
how to get any of this information to Sally. But he had to try. It was the night to either   
succeed, or die.  
  
Knowing that death was infinitely more likely, the King composed a farewell letter   
to Ari, and left it sitting on the floor of his throne room, asking the ram to compose the   
epitaph for his tombstone.  
  
"Archive all scanned-in images and compress them into one file," King Acorn   
commanded, using the computer's worn-out voice recognition circuits. "Save it to a   
holographic disk."  
  
"File name?" the computer's two small speakers grated.  
  
The King scratched his muzzle thoughtfully. Most of the hidden tunnels and   
access points, things that would be of most use to the Freedom Fighters, were   
underground. "Sub-Ter."  
  
If, somehow, fate decided to grace him by getting the map through to Sally, time   
would still likely be limited, so any other message he did get through would have to be   
short. He wrote one last letter to his daughter, meant to accompany the compilation of   
maps.  
  
"Sally, there's something horrible in all our futures that must never happen. Check   
the 'Sub-Ter' file. Use it. It's impossible to tell you anything more. I love you."  
  
He slipped the folded-up note into the pocket of his uniform, even though it wasn't   
necessary to take it with him. He had already committed it to memory.  
  
Max turned to face the doors of the throne room. Beyond them, it was only a   
short stroll to Naugus's workshop.  
  
It was time to act.  
  



	4. Discovering Spirit

Chapter 4: Discovering Spirit  
  
---  
  
By Naugus's artificial clock, it was late evening, almost on the verge of becoming   
early morning again. The wizard's sleeping cycles were anything but predictable; however,   
now was usually the safest time to assume that he was unconscious. Still, the fact that he   
didn't know Naugus's whereabouts only heightened the King's apprehension.  
  
An involuntary shiver rippled down his spine as he stood in the doorway of the   
empty workshop. He was truly terrified of the consequences of Naugus catching him in   
the act. Almost instinctively, he began to back away, but stopped himself just before he   
crossed the doorway's threshold again.  
  
He forced himself to concentrate of the comforting weight of the holographic disk   
in his uniform's chest pocket, and set to work. Focusing on one task at a time helped to   
somewhat allay his fears, if not stifle them completely.  
  
First of all, he had to find a point where he could easily reach his daughter. She   
would have to be tapped into to the remnants of the old Mobotropolis computer network.   
Using the scrying device, Max began backpedal through time, searching for a point, any   
point, where he could get a message across to her. It didn't take him long to find it.   
Almost a year before her death, she and her friends were on a foray in Robotropolis. For   
a brief moment, a shining window of opportunity, she was connected into the city's   
computer network. A message transmitted to that terminal would go directly to her.  
  
And then Max realized that he had reached the point beyond which he had no plan.  
  
There was nothing he could think to do. He had done all he could. He knew how,   
when, and where to transmit the Sub-Ter file, and at long last save his daughter's life, but   
none of that changed the damnable fact that *nothing* could escape the Void. The Sub-  
Ter file was as trapped in this dimension as he was.  
  
He walked over to the empty rock tunnel, where the Void's useless portal could be   
opened, and stood there, staring at the blank stone. His palm slipped across the disk   
concealed in his uniform's pocket; its weight felt depressingly hollow. He didn't know   
how long he stood there, motionless. For all Max knew, it could have already passed into   
the next day's morning, or afternoon. He only became aware of the passage of time again   
when the workshop's door squeaked open behind him. The clacking sound of heavy boots   
against the floor marked Ixis Naugus's entrance. He made no comment as to the King's   
presence in his workshop.  
  
Max stood shock-still as the footsteps drew closer. They stopped only two meters   
away.  
  
"Did you really think I wouldn't catch on to this?" Naugus's raspy voice asked.   
The undercurrent of his tone was thick with seething anger.  
  
"That was an illusion I never held."  
  
"Then it's been outnumbered by the ones you do," Naugus interrupted harshly.   
"About a month ago, I set up a passive surveillance system by my scrying device. You   
were obviously unaware of it." Max felt the yawning pit growing in his stomach grow   
deeper. It threatened to swallow his soul whole. "I've been watching you come in here   
ever since then, creating maps. I know what you've been doing… I was beginning to   
wonder how long it would take before you would finally act."  
  
The sorcerer's words jabbed into the King like a thousand needles in his chest,   
worse than any physical torture he had ever inflicted. This game had been won by Naugus   
before it even began. Max had set out expecting failure, but even this was almost too   
much for him to handle. The only thing that allowed him to keep his composure was a   
determination to not die weeping.  
  
"If you're going to kill me, then make it fast," Max snapped bitterly.  
  
"I'll do no such thing," Naugus's voice quivered with hostility. There was a pause,   
as if the wizard had to stop keep himself under control. "You… you haven't just outlived   
your usefulness as my servant. Oh, no, that would be too simple. You've… *angered*   
me."  
  
Max finally turned around to face Naugus, freezing when he saw his eyes. A   
madness deep enough to be called insanity burned in those dark pits.  
  
"I'll make sure you take days to die," Naugus hissed.  
  
Once again, the King saw his life spiral out of his control. The same feeling that   
shivered down his spine when Julian exiled him to the Void struck him again. Except this   
time he wasn't going to lose control of not only his life, but his death as well. Back before   
Julian's betrayal, he had always known that he would die an old man, happy and loved.   
The perfect ending to a perfect life. He had never imagined that reality could be so cruel.  
  
"Then get it over with," Max spat.  
  
Naugus's cracked and parched lips twisted upwards in a terrible smile.  
  
The first bolt brought Max to his knees, as if some titanic force had nearly sheared   
away his ankles. Bright light flashed as another bolt fired, and he felt the first of Naugus's   
torturous magic seep their way into his body. It felt as if the flesh had been flayed from   
his arms and his ribcage shattered into a thousand tiny shards. He couldn't keep the   
scream from escaping his throat.  
  
"Silence! Your only purpose is to die at my feet-"  
  
A third voice splintered the fray, stopping Naugus's words before they left his   
mouth. "No!" The magic ceased cackling around Naugus's fingertips as he took a step   
backwards in surprise. The sorcerer's cape whirled through the air as he spun around.   
Someone else flew leapt into the air, slamming into Naugus's stout form and tackling him   
to the ground. A gasp of shocked air was forced from the wizard's lungs when his back   
connected with the stone. Max's vision was distorted by pain; he only saw the interloper's   
two curled horns. The burly ram held Naugus pinned to the floor.  
  
"What is this?" Ixis screeched. Almost immediately recovering from the surprise   
attack, more magical energy began to form around his hand, getting ready to strike back.   
"You'll all pay, I-"  
  
"Shut up!" Ari bellowed.  
  
An instant before a bolt of pure energy would have leapt from Naugus's hands to   
strike the newcomer, the ram's fist drew back and smashed into the sorcerer's face.   
Naugus's neck snapped backwards; there was an audible *crack* as his skull nearly   
shattered open against the workshop's stone floor.  
  
No time for pleasantries, no warm greetings. Even a strong blow like that would   
only keep Naugus disabled for a few seconds at best. Ari waved frantically towards the   
rock tunnel, where the unopened portal could be opened. "Go, sire! Go now!"  
  
Without thinking, Max rose to his feet, dashing over to the tunnel. For a moment,   
he was conscious only of the ground slipping past underneath his feet. It was all too   
unreal: in under five seconds, he had been dragged to the gaping maw of utter failure only   
to be brought back again. With *still* no way to escape the Void and get his message to   
Sally. But now he had no choice but to try.  
  
He let magic flow through his bones, concentrating on nothing more than his goal   
of summoning the gateway between dimensions. In the real world, the portal would open   
a year before Sally's death, just before she would log into Robotropolis's computer   
network. Where didn't matter so much, just so long as it was near a terminal that could   
transmit the data he needed. A second later the portal's swirling purple and yellow   
exploded into existence in front of him, blowing wind towards him in a strong outwards   
gust.  
  
Behind him, he heard Ari's scream of pain as Naugus recovered enough to fully   
direct his powerful offensive magic at the ram. There wasn't even any time to feel   
sympathy for him. The same thing would be in store for Max if he waited but a second   
longer.  
  
In the instant before he leapt, he was struck by a twinge of sorrow for the   
overwhelming futility of his plight.  
  
King Maximillion Acorn hurled himself into the portal.  
  
---  
  
Almost immediately, the titanic energy field surging inwards nearly shoved him   
back into Naugus's workshop. It took all of his strength to merely remain in the yawning   
lip of the portal, suspended in limbo in the disorienting no-man's land between the Void   
and reality. Just behind him, the workshop loomed threateningly close, while ahead, the   
distance between himself and the real world seemed nearly infinite.  
  
Light and sound flashed past him, both caught in the Void's pull and streaming   
towards the end of the portal. It seemed that the only thing solid was his own body;   
elsewhere in the portal, it was almost as if each of his five senses had merged into a pool   
of disconcerting liquidity. Nothing was a constant except for the distances between both   
portal entrances.  
  
Sally's last few words came back to him. "Sonic. His speed can fight the Void's   
pull long enough to escape." His mind relaxed, concentrating on the goal of giving his   
legs the same power as the hedgehog's. If speed and speed alone could allow escape from   
the portal's inexorable pull, then perhaps the effect could be magically recreated.  
  
Magic flowed through him, into his legs, and they began moving fast enough to   
become a blur, gaining traction where there was no visible ground. The workshop started   
to fall into the distance behind him. He allowed himself a brief, shining moment of hope:   
he was gaining!  
  
Yet, as he draw further and further away from the Void's magic-friendly   
environment, the energy that powered his legs began to dissipate. Each step became more   
and more difficult, while the exit to the real world was still frustratingly far off. Max   
began to tumble backwards, barely able to catch himself from falling back into the   
workshop.  
  
Body and mind aching, he glanced up towards the impossibly distant portal   
opening. The real world lay just beyond there, tantalizingly visible for the first time in   
more than two years. But it couldn't be reached. All that the King had gone through, all   
that he could hope, didn't change the horrible fact that there was *no* escape from the   
Void.  
  
It was sorely tempting to just let go, fall back into Naugus's workshop, and face   
the death that was coming to him.  
  
Max's muscles were strained with the massive effort needed to just keep him   
suspended in the portal's entrance. He was almost an old man; they would give, soon.   
There could only be one more try.  
  
The King flexed his mental muscles, letting magic flow through him once more,   
and instead of focusing on the goal of forcing his tired legs to move faster, he focused on   
nothing more than reaching the other side of the portal. That was his only goal.  
Magic energy cackled uselessly around him, fading away. Still no effect.  
  
His goal, his goal. He needed to reach the other side. This was more than just a   
goal, a needless purpose. Reaching the other side, landing in the real world, meant more   
to him than anything he'd ever done before. His daughter meant more to him than the sum   
of Mobotropolis. He couldn't just concentrate on his goal and let his magic take him   
there. It had ceased to become a goal.  
  
It had become his life.  
  
His…  
  
The missing symbol clicked into place.  
  
It had never been anything that Naugus could teach because Naugus *didn't   
possess it.* The symbol had represented an essential component of magic, an ingredient   
that was the strongest of powers. It was something that was incredibly simple yet   
incredibly difficult to achieve. There was more to magic than merely visualizing your goal   
and waiting for it to happen, so much more. Such things seemed impossibly shallow by   
comparison.  
  
Visualizing your goal was only part of the process, the very beginning. Not even   
Naugus had recognized this. To truly become powerful, you had to almost become a part   
of your goal. Merge with it.  
  
The missing symbol represented spirit.  
  
Max's shout breached both sides of the portal, spilling over into the workshop and   
the real world, triumphing over even the sensory-skewed zone that was the portal itself.  
  
Max Acorn became a part of his goal, wanted to save his daughter's life badly   
enough to give his own. Flush with dawning triumph and screaming a wordless cry, he   
surged through the impossible boundaries of the portal fighting as best as he was able, and   
surged out the other side, and into the real world.  
  
---  
  
He landed in an environment almost as cold and unforgiving as Naugus's workshop   
in the dimension he had left behind, and barely managed to avoid cracking his head against   
a stone wall. The first thing he was cognizant of, though, was the portal and its pull.  
  
The open purple and yellow vortex swirled nearby, sucking in air with speeds   
approaching gale-force. Dust and debris from his dismal surroundings flew into the Void.   
But the pull Max felt was more than just wind.  
  
It was almost a magnetism trying to draw him back inside, a pull that was more   
than even the newfound power of his magic could fight. He got the unnerving impression   
that the universe itself had cast aside its cloak of physical laws and said to him, "You don't   
belong here." Instantly he knew that he could only remain in the real world for no more   
than a few minutes at best. The pull would overpower him soon.  
  
Even now, in the real world at long last, true victory was impossible. He couldn't   
remain.  
  
This bothered him little. His only real goal lay in saving his daughter's life, not in   
escaping the Void itself, and now he had a golden window of opportunity in which to   
accomplish it. He reached inside his pocket, making sure the holographic disk containing   
the Sub-Ter file hadn't slipped out in the maelstrom. A reassured smile crossed his face   
when he felt its presence.  
  
Max glanced quickly about, searching for a computer terminal of any kind. There   
were none in sight. The room he had landed in didn't seem like it would contain any,   
either: it was dusty and unused, the walls and floors made from primitive stone masonry.   
Where had he landed?  
  
In his panic to open the portal, he had only instructed it to open somewhere near a   
functioning computer terminal, but hadn't been any more specific with his instructions. He   
prayed that wasn't an oversight that would cost Sally her life.  
  
There was but a single door at the far end of the small room. Max stumbled over   
to it, the portal's pull making him fight for every step. It was locked. He furrowed his   
brow, and let a bolt of energy fly from his fingertips and blast the door open.  
  
Outside was an empty stone corridor filled with row upon row of countless   
doorways, each identical to the last. The King finally realized that he had landed in a   
prison cell.  
  
Memories long since abandoned ever since his exile came back to him with a rush.   
There was only one such complex this ancient, and this dilapidated, anywhere near the   
boundaries of his kingdom. This was Ironlocke Prison, an antique structure that had lain   
abandoned for over a century. It was far removed from Mobotropolis itself, in an   
uninhabited region of the Dark Swamp.  
  
The portal's pull had been growing stronger. He hobbled blindly down the open   
corridor, hoping with each step that it wouldn't be his last. Max felt his cloak catch on   
something and tear, but he paid it no attention. There had to be a terminal around here   
somewhere. In the warden's office, maybe. There *had* to be.  
  
The world would no longer be a place the King wanted to live in if there wasn't.  
Almost as soon as he had thought it, Max lurched into the warden's office, and   
spotted the computer. It was archaic, like everything else in Ironlocke, but if it only had a   
connection to the old Mobotropolis computer network, it would serve his purposes.  
He switched it on.  
  
"Access code, please," A rough, electronic voice grated through aging speakers.  
  
He didn't have time for this. "Override by order of the Royal Throne of   
Mobotropolis." More memories surged back to him; supposedly, each computer ever   
commissioned by the royal government would have this feature. The family credo, known   
to nobody but the royal house would override anything. Supposedly. "Code: 'To Rule   
With Honor'."  
  
"Access approved." The computer's worn-down speakers had an irritating reverb   
effect, but at least the voice recognition circuits were functioning.  
  
"Connect to the Mobotropolis data network."  
  
"Connection established."  
  
Max resisted the urge to jump up and cheer. The Void's pull was getting stronger,   
and his time in the real world more and more limited. Instead, he pulled the holographic   
disk out of his pocket and shoved it into the terminal.  
  
This was it: the critical moment. Would it work or wouldn't it? "Upload the Sub-  
Ter file to the following terminal: StealthBot Hangar 2A, Plane 5."  
  
"Insufficient bandwidth," the terminal buzzed.  
  
The King's jaw dropped open. "No!" he shouted. "You have to be able to send   
that file!"  
  
The computer didn't answer.  
  
"Why can't you upload it? Diagnose." Max was once again cognizant of the   
Void's continual pull on his body. A minute or two remained to him, at most.  
  
"The file is too large to maintain a stable connection rate."  
  
"Then send the terminal a message. A simple one."  
  
"Enter message."  
  
The King frowned. What would get Sally's attention faster than anything else, he   
pondered. Thinking fast was critical.  
  
"Bean."  
  
---  
  
"Man, what is all this stuff?"  
  
"It's the brains of the plane," Sally replied, eagerly looking over the Stealth Bot's   
internal components. It looked exactly as the stolen schematics said it would. Unless   
Robotnik had left any hidden traps inside the computer itself, hacking into it would be less   
than a problem.  
  
Sonic had to peer into the interior of the plane from the open grate below. There   
wasn't room enough in the control pit for more than a single person, and besides, it was   
his job to make sure no maintenance or security robots got too close. "And you're gonna   
do a little brain surgery, right?"  
  
Sally's hand traced across the control panel, finding an input jack that would fit her   
hand-held computer. "More or less," she said, glancing down at the hedgehog. "First I   
have to break the access code, get into Robotnik's mainframe computer, and reprogram   
the launch data." Her gaze fell back to the controls in front of her, and she unclipped   
Nicole her boot, setting her idly on the console.  
  
"Then *kaboom*!" Sonic triumphantly raised his fist in unnecessary emphasis.   
"These Stealth Bots are lunchin', yes?"  
  
"They're… lunchin', yes," Sally confirmed, nearly stumbling over the hedgehog's   
unique vocabulary. With a single motion of her wrist, she deftly flipped Nicole's case   
open, and plugged her into the waiting console. "Nicole?"  
  
"Ready, Sally," the computer confirmed, faithful as ever.  
  
"Access main database."  
  
"Password, Sally."  
  
Such routine obstacles had been expected, and the Freedom Fighters were more   
than capable of dealing with them. "Run decoding program for 'X'." A dormant   
holographic projector hummed to life, spewing light into the air. A three-by-three grid   
appeared in mid-air, flashing letters past too fast for the eye to read. Slowly, carefully, the   
letters resolved themselves into a single word. Sally bent forward to read it: the password   
was "Meteor".  
  
Without being asked to, Nicole used the password to infiltrate Robotropolis's   
computer network. As far as any monitoring programs were concerned, they were just   
another user out of thousands of connected worker and security bots. It would only take   
another few minutes to complete their work here. Then the Stealth Bot would be history,   
and Ivo Robotnik's plans set back another day.  
  
Someone, though, thought that a few minutes was too long to wait. Sally's   
concentration was broken by the strumming of gloved fingers against the metal interior of   
the plane.  
  
"Sonic, do you mind?"  
  
The hedgehog shot her his best "Who, me?" look. "Not very well. Dogs mind,   
not hedgehogs."  
  
"Well, show a little patience," she suggested.  
  
"Hey, hey, hey, hey," Sonic said quickly, "Patients are for hospitals. We're in   
Robo-country, and that makes *me* itchy." He glanced quickly towards the hangar bay,   
but before he could launch into another tirade, something else attracted his attention.   
"Whoa!" When he looked back up at her, his eyes were widened with alarm.  
  
"Hurry it up, Sal!" He pointed urgently across the hangar bay to something Sally   
couldn't see. She could hear the grinding of the security bots' treads, though. "Party-  
crashers comin'!"  
  
Sally glanced quickly back at her computer, but was interrupted yet again, this   
time by Nicole. She was hit completely by surprise by what happened next.  
  
"Incoming message," Nicole reported emotionlessly. The hologram message   
disappeared, replaced by glowing red text and a single word. A word that hadn't held any   
meaning for her for almost a decade. She blinked, eyes focused entirely on the display.  
  
"Bean?" Sonic asked, confused.  
  
She overcame her surprise long enough to force words from her mouth. "Oh my   
gosh. Sonic, my father called me 'Bean' when I was little." She turned back to the   
console, security bots forgotten entirely. "Nicole, give me message origin."  
  
Sonic bent down to peer at the hangar bay again. The bots were getting   
dangerously close. He wondered if their intrusion into Robotropolis' computers had been   
detected. "Sal, we gotta put the pedal to the metal!"  
  
"I have to check this out," she insisted, fusing with the plane's controls. There had   
one been a single message, and just one word. Yet the meaning it conveyed was   
unmistakable. "It may be from my father!"  
  
The hologram display lit up, zooming into focus a map of badlands far beyond   
Robotropolis. Nicole began charting coordinates and listing numbers. "Message origin:   
Area 12, Sector 9, Quadrant 32."  
  
The breath caught in Sally's throat. "The Dark Swamp?"  
  
---  
  
"Message received."  
  
Max didn't dare so much as exhale in relief, for fear that taking his mind off   
fighting the Void's encroaching pull for a single moment would enable it to overtake him.   
His daughter's life wasn't out of jeopardy yet.  
  
"Copy the Sub-Ter file to hard drive," he ordered, urgently. When the computer   
was finished, he wasted no time with his next command. "Password lock, combination   
'Bean'."  
  
"Locked," the device confirmed.  
  
Even though the gaping portal was several dozen meters away, it felt as though it   
were but an inch away from his forehead. The Void *wanted* him back; it wouldn't allow   
for any escape. Max gave himself less than half a minute before the sheer strength of it   
would overwhelm him.  
  
He ran through a mental checklist. Hopefully, the message had reached Sally and   
alerted her to his presence. If it hadn't there wasn't anything he could do now. With any   
luck, she would come here and find the Sub-Ter file. Only one thing left to do.  
  
Max's hand fumbled for the handwritten message still tucked into the pocket of his   
uniform. As soon as he removed the slip of paper, the hurricane-force winds wrenched   
out from between his fingertips. It tumbled end over end down the corridor, disappearing   
at last into the whirling portal.  
  
It didn't matter, the King told himself. He had memorized the letter anyway.  
  
His grip on the real world began to slip. Even his newfound powers could only   
stay the Void's confounded power for a few more seconds at best. He would have to   
shorten the message.  
  
"Begin recording a message for playback when the Sub-Ter file is accessed," Max   
demanded.  
  
"Voice recognition ready. Recording."  
  
"Bean. Check Sub-Ter file. Impossi-"  
  
Then the Void claimed him.  
  
---  
  
Max tumbled helplessly down the portal, even his newfound powers unable to slow   
his descent. The universe really was against him, again, saying that even though he had   
been able to break free for a precious moment, he still couldn't escape.  
  
He didn't even get to see sunlight.  
  
Max had little time for reflection or sorrows at the conclusion of his forced flight   
into the portal. The Void tossed him roughly the ground of Naugus's workshop, moving   
so fast that he almost gave himself a concussion on the same wall that Sally's head had   
struck months ago. Almost as soon as he landed, the portal collapsed and sealed itself   
behind him.  
  
He, Naugus, and Ari were alone.  
  
The King rose unsteadily to his feet, eyes locking with Naugus. A hiss of angry air   
escaped his lips, traced with a subtle hint of satisfaction. It didn't take long for Max to see   
why: Ari lay huddled at the wizard's feet, reduced to little more than a quivering ball of   
whimpering fur. Naugus took sadistic pleasure from reducing strong, healthy individuals   
into useless, sobbing lumps of flesh.  
  
"Do what you will, Naugus. I did it. I changed history, and now there's nothing   
you can do about it."  
  
"Changed… what?" the sorcerer chuckled, somewhat light-heartened by Ari's   
torture. "From inside the Void?" His lips curled upwards in amusement. "I don't doubt it   
in the least."  
  
King Acorn didn't answer, staring resolutely at the horn on the wizard's forehead.  
  
Without warning, Naugus's face darkened. "It's your turn, now, Sire. It was wise   
to hide this one from me, but all that means now is that you'll die together. On your   
knees, lackey."  
  
Max remained standing.  
  
"So then die on your feet." Naugus held out his hands, and with a single flick of   
his wrist, flung a magical bolt of pain towards the King.  
  
Max observed him casting it, watched the bolt fly towards him with detachment.   
He could see it all, now. Things that had been invisible to him before he had discovered   
the meaning behind the missing symbol. Naugus's magic was almost deceptive in its   
power; in truth, it was acutely simple. Naugus only visualized his goal and let it happen.   
He didn't part any part of *himself* into the magic. He lacked spirit. It was as if the   
vessel firing the magic was little more than a living corpse.  
  
He harmlessly absorbed the offensive magic into his body, barely working up a   
mental sweat in counteracting it.  
  
Naugus frowned, startled and more than a little unnerved that Max hadn't doubled   
over in unbearable pain. He flexed his fingertips again, and shot another blast of magic in   
the King's direction, this one a little stronger.  
  
Max watched, uninterested by Naugus's display of power, and calmly shrugged off   
the magic. He thought it remarkable that he had actually been fearful of the wizard's   
power before, when all he needed to do to defend himself against it was put his spirit into   
it. Spirit was one thing Ixis could never have.  
  
"What is this…" Naugus frowned, and prepared to fire yet another bolt. His hands   
began to glow with energy that, if released, would instantly kill an unprotected furry.  
  
"ENOUGH!"  
  
Naugus staggered backwards, into the workshop's craggy rock wall, clutching his   
ears, his mouth open in a silent shout of horror. Ari, still huddled on the floor, only   
flinched. The brunt of Max's power had been directed solely at the wizard.  
  
"Why, Naugus, you were right. It is my turn, after all."  
  
The King idly snapped his fingers. Exactly on cue, breath rushed out of Naugus's   
lungs as he doubled over in pain. He fell to his knees.  
  
"Just not in the way you were expecting."  
  
Naugus gasped for air. The only thing that emerged from his throat were squeaks.   
His vocal cords were suddenly incapable of functioning. For the first time since Max had   
returned from the real world, a pair of horns poked upwards from the trembling mass that   
Ari had been reduced to. He finally had gathered the strength to look upwards.  
  
"Ari," Max said, magic leaking out into his voice, lending the injured ram strength.   
The thought that magic could be used for healing had never occurred to Max before,   
simply because he had never seen Naugus use his powers for anything except pain and   
punishment. "Time to get up," he prodded gently.  
  
Slowly, shakily, Ari rose to a sitting position, and then his feet. He hobbled over   
to the King without saying a word, and gladly accepted the supporting arm when it was   
offered. Max's magic hadn't cured him to the point where he was able to walk steadily,   
but that would come in time, as he recovered. Max had had enough experience with   
Naugus's tortures to know that he eventually would.  
  
Ixis Naugus cowered on the workshop's floor, moving only to paw uselessly at his   
throat. At last, a word escaped the formerly-powerful wizard's parched and cracked lips.  
  
"How?"  
  
"Doesn't really seem to matter now, does it?"  
  
Naugus nodded, doing his best to appear subdued. Max saw right through the   
deception; the wizard's mind was transparent. He could see the plans and the seething   
fury boiling within. Naugus's hand shot up almost immediately, and shot one last bolt of   
magic at Max. It struck him dead-on in the chest, but Max never felt it. It was simply that   
easy to nullify.  
  
Almost wearily, Max's magic slapped Naugus's hand to the ground. Once more,   
Naugus shuddered in pain as the King flexed his offensive power.  
  
It would be incredibly easy simply snuff out Ixis Naugus's life, right here and now.   
For every bit of injustice and torture the King had been forced to put up with for the past   
two years of his life. If he concentrated hard enough, Max could even see Julian   
Kintobor's fat, grinning visage over Naugus's face.  
  
But… no. He had vowed years ago, before he had even taken the throne as the   
monarch of Mobotropolis, to never submit to petty revenge.  
  
"I'm not quite sure what to do with you," Max confessed. "As much as I've   
grown, you're still a threat. If I don't kill you right now, it's possible that you could learn   
how to counteract my defenses, maybe even catch me by surprise, and finish me.  
  
"I won't force you to promise to stay away, won't torture you like you did me.   
Because, if you still haven't figured it out, those methods just *don't* work." He ignored   
the slight smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "So how about a proposal. Simple,   
straight, logical. We're both quite capable of killing one other. I'm very sure neither one   
of us wants to die. So in order to prevent any unnecessary bloodshed… we both stay as   
far away from each other as possible. You stay near your workshop, I'll stay near my   
castle, and we won't exchange another word until we can escape this prison."  
  
King Acorn's form towered over the crumpled Naugus, making it very clear what   
would happen if he dissented. "Agreed?"  
  
Naugus croaked something that Max could only assume was a reluctant   
affirmative.  
  
"You can't imagine how difficult it is to see you lying there, so vulnerable. You   
really don't know how tempting it is to do to you exactly what you did to me. Shoot pure   
pain into your body, wrack it with magic until you're reduced to little more than an empty   
shell." Max leaned in closer. "And that's exactly what will happen if you try *anything*,   
wizard. That's a promise."  
  
A word tried to escape Naugus's mouth, but it got caught in his throat and died.  
  
"Glad to see we can finally come to an understanding after all these years."  
  
---  
  
A year after King Acorn's abbreviated return to Mobius, another one of Ivo   
Robotnik's armories disappeared behind a curtain of roaring flames. One after one,   
explosive charges detonated inside the warehouse, setting fire to stockpiles of volatile   
ammunition and weaponry, which exploded in even more grandiose fashion.  
  
An investigation into the matter, heralded by the dictator's nephew Snively, could   
only postulate that the Freedom Fighters had entered the facility through maintenance   
tunnels, until then, Ivo had been confident were hidden. The Freedom Fighters had a   
knack for surprising him like that. Robotnik's plans were set back yet again as new   
facilities had to be constructed, and new weaponry manufactured, to make up for the   
losses.  
  
Such raids were almost commonplace in Robotropolis. As far as both Snively and   
the Freedom Fighters were concerned, it had been just another routine raid.  
  
Only three people alive knew its significance.  
  
For Ari and King Acorn, after finally finishing the construction of their own   
scrying device, months of self-torture and regret had come to a close. Sally was alive. It   
had worked. For a brief, shining moment they had beaten the impenetrable boundaries of   
the dimensional prison, and had done far more good than they ever thought possible. Not   
only were the lives of Sally and her friends secured, at least temporarily, but now she   
could keep fighting against Julian, keep saving lives, and hopefully even help bring an end   
to the decade-long reign of terror.  
  
There was still more work to be done, however. Sally's words, even though for   
she herself would never remember them, were not lost on the King. At some point in   
Max's future, Sally would return to the Void.  
  
That would be when, according to her, he would give her a list of other Freedom   
Fighter groups. Already, he had the list partially assembled. With the scrying device, he   
had located dedicated bands of refugees scattered in the forests to the south and east of   
Robotropolis, as well as a pack of wolves based in the Great Unknown. When Sally   
finally arrived, he would be more than ready to play his role.  
  
He and Naugus had only seen each other a few times since Max's triumphant   
return from the real world, usually just in passing through the Void's numerous rock-lined   
corridors. They regarded each other with nothing but wary glances, but Naugus didn't   
seem to be confident enough to risk attacking him again. At least, not yet.  
  
All in all, the past few months had granted Max the peace and serenity he had   
never been able to attain while living under Naugus's bootheel. Yet he was never truly   
content with his new position, no matter how much better it was then before.  
  
His daughter lived, and Naugus's cruelty had been contained. None of this had   
changed the fact that he was an exile from his own kingdom, trapped in a tyrant's prison,   
with everything he had truly cared about in life stolen away from him.  
  
No, true satisfaction would have to wait until Julian was dead.  
  
---  
  
There was no point, Ixis Naugus thought to himself, in wasting valuable time on   
piddling regrets. So long as he was still able to continue his work and escape the Void, it   
hardly mattered that his former servant still lived. Naugus was determined to not waste   
his anger fuming over the situation, and instead learn from it.  
  
Long before King Acorn had even landed in the Void, Naugus thought that he had   
exhausted almost every possibility of escape from the prison. It wasn't as simple as going   
backwards in time long enough to keep the portal he was sucked into from opening. Such   
an action, if it were taken, would not only not free him, but split the universe in two in a   
classic example of temporal paradox. He had thought himself doomed.  
  
But then, King Acorn had done something that had simply never occurred to him.   
Used his magic to give himself speed enough to physically fight the Void's pull. Naugus   
had long ago relegated all ideas of escape to the confines of mathematical equations and   
guesswork. Brute force had never occurred to him.  
  
Yet even King Acorn's attempt to break free eventually failed, because his escape   
had been rooted in magic, and his magic had been based in the Void. So speed was the   
key, but it had to be something non-magical and mundane.  
  
The blue-quilled speedster he had seen accompanying the King's daughter had   
instantly leapt to mind. If the hedgehog could somehow be dragged into the Void and   
convinced to take him out, then Naugus's own escape became a definite possibility.  
The hedgehog and his friends, including the wretch's daughter, Sally, were now   
displayed on the screen of Naugus's scrying device.  
  
"Such superb speed," he mused, "and such a fine mind…"  
  
Naugus's gnarled fingertips idly tugged on the coarse strands of his beard.  
  
There *had* to be a way he could take advantage of this situation.  
  
"Interesting…"  



End file.
